In the course of a writing career spanning half a century, Michel Butor has produced a remarkable range and volume of publications, including fiction, travel works, poetry, critical essays and various types of mixed-genre works which resist ready categorziation. Much of this very diverse oeuvre is marked by his life-long passion for the visual arts. Not only has he been a prolific art critic, he has also collaborated with many contemporary artists in the production of various types of work, including limited edition livres d'artistes and textes-collages. plastic and architectural arts in Butor's work. It addresses a wide range of issues including the following: the role of the artwork, building or monument as narrative generator; the status of the artwork or edifice as cultural point of reference in the personal, cultural and epistemological quests undertaken by Butor's protagonists; the reflexive functions of the visual and architectural references; the interaction between visual/architectural references and intertextual citation; the role of collaboration in Butor's oeuvre; the relationship between cultural baggage and the workings of the unconscious; and the tension between Butor's fascination for non-European artistic traditions and his continuing dialogue with the Western tradition.