The first edition includes an original numbered etching signed and numbered by the author and a book. It has a print run of 31 copies numbered and signed by the author and distributed as follows:
- 31 copies numbered from 1/31 to 31/31
- 3 artist's proofs numbered I/III to III/III
- 1 copy reserved for legal deposit at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
La Pieuvre - Artist's book and original engraving
"The octopus I have drawn it so many times, I have smeared it with ink, I have bathed it, I have painted it, I have depicted it, I have blackened it, I have traced it, I have talked to it, I have insulted it, it has devoured me... but never completely. There was always a bit of life left inside. I don't know why. My last inexhaustible strength. Unfathomable. Unsuspected. {...} To be sick is to stop dying."