The oeuvre of this ivoirian artist, born in 1923, is marked by an encyclopedic curiosity. Bruly Bouabré, who gives himself the nickname “Cheik Nadro,” he who doesn’t forget, is interested in recording, codifying and archiving knowledge, particularly that pertaining to the Bété tribe to which he belongs. In order to fix and transmit the language and culture of his people, Bruly Bouabré composed a visual alphabet for Bété, creating over 440 monosyllabic ideograms in all. In his artistic work, Bruly Bouabré adapts the ideogram’s visual language to express a broader message. He adopts a consistent format: a small image, surrounded by a textual border, is inscribed in pen and pencil on a card. The imagery for Voitures Partout (Cars Everywhere) was inspired by the large traffic jams that Bruly Bouabré witnessed in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire’s largest city. The notion of cars as ostentatious status symbol is emphasized in the image’s border: “L’exposition des riches,” or “Exhibition of wealth.” But by filling in each car with a different flag, Bruly Bouabré emphasizes instead that, rather than dividing the rich from the poor, automobiles unify the entire world, eliminating the borders between countries.

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