Le petit livre

Another facet of Gilles Clément’s work is writing—an activity he pursues with as much passion as gardening. This is reflected in a substantial body of texts spanning various literary genres.

In the early 1980s, Gilles Clément developed one of his first concepts, that of the Jardin en mouvement, which he would later implement in practice on his land in La Vallée. However, creating the garden alone was not enough. He felt the need to develop a theoretical framework capable of conveying what he had learned. To this end, Gilles began writing a series of texts over several years, part of which culminated in the first edition of Le Jardin en mouvement in 1991.

The creation of the garden and the writing of the book—referred to as “the little book” in his notebooks—share a number of common points that may be seen as part of a single process. These parallel experiences make it impossible to understand the garden without the book, or the book without the garden.

The processes of transformation undergone by the living garden and the paper garden mean that their final appearance conceals remarkable elements. Just as in La Vallée the garden ultimately results from processes beyond our direct observation—wandering seeds, weather agents, soil types, and so on—the book is not only the outcome of selecting a series of texts, but also of an intense and hidden process of reflection. This process leaves behind, in a drawer, a collection of writings, diagrams, and sketches that provide a fertile substrate from which the ideas ultimately published can germinate.

After more than three decades, the book has reached its sixth edition in France and has been translated into several languages, including Italian, Spanish, and Japanese.

Draft for his book Le Jardin en mouvement. Handwritten text on paper. 1984.
Draft for his book Le Jardin en mouvement. Typewritten text on paper. 1984.