The Oulipo, or Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle, was founded by Raymond Queneau and friends in 1960 to find out how abstract restrictions could be combined with imaginative writing (as in George Perec's celebrated novel without the letter e). This Compendium is the first comprehensive survey of the group in any language. It includes extensive selections from the work of Oulipians, analyses of their important works and descriptions of their methods. Further sections cover related groups working in the fields of art, detective fiction, comic strips and even cuisine.