La Spirale: Un roman sans paroles is the French published edition of The Cycle, Neil Bousfield’s wordless novel told through 200 engravings.
The book follows two brothers growing up in a working-class family, where life is shaped by factory work, low wages and social hardship. Destined to become assembly-line workers like their parents, the brothers struggle to escape the cycle of poverty and repetition. When an unexpected intervention offers one brother a different path, the story explores the possibility of change and the choices that shape our lives.
Inspired by Neil’s experiences working for a small charity, The Cycle follows in the tradition of the wordless novel, using hand-cut images in place of text to tell its story. The work explores the contrast between the lives people lead and the lives they hope for, and how social circumstances can keep one generation trapped in the same cycle as the last.
The original first edition of The Cycle was completed over two years and hand-printed and bound by the artist in an edition of just 12 copies. The book’s narrative is told through 187 engraved blocks, with 200 blocks used in total.
