Language, Individual & Society, Volume 16, 2022

Abstract: Michel Butor wrote his masterpiece the Change of Heart as a starting point for the exploration of new forms of creative expression. As a result of this exploration, he appropriated a new genre, namely the artist's books, which totally transformed the writer's way of writing. The Change of Heart was a trigger for the transformation, which took place gradually over time with Passing time and Mobile and was completed in the Catalonian Garden in 2000. The association of art with the city takes precedence over other issues developed on this relationship. The architecture of Butor's book is a veritable baroque cathedral, gilded and painted blue with words. What you get as a work of art in the form of Butor's book is in line with his reflections on the entanglement between painting and letters. The art of the baroque reminds us of the artifice on which creation rests. This is what happens in the Change of Heart, it becomes a painting, then transforms into a cathedral. The spiritual change is reflected in the external world of objects through water that materially transmit an inner world as the changing colours in impressionist’s painting. That is why water in Change of Heart is of supreme importance. It transforms the city into a work of art. It wets every page of the novel appearing in every kind of liquid - blood, wine, oil, milk, oil, lake, sea, pond... This is the realm of water. These transformations modify Michel Butor's vision of art in order to elevate his work as a writer to the performance of an artist.