Fred Deux, illustrator, oral poet, writer, and, under the pseudonym Jean Douassot, author of a cult book, La Gana, was a singular artist who cannot be categorised in terms of art fashions and trends. This autodidact, born in the basement of a large house in Boulogne-Billancourt to a working-class family, constantly had to overcome, as he would say. “He had to overcome”: overcome the basement walls to access the life which called him and burnt inside him. Overcome the barriers between the arts, moving from drawing to the written word, and from the page to the tape recorder, in the face of which he recounted stories to himself in a sort of endless reverie, constantly exploring the unknown in him. Overcoming and being overcome: gradually immersing himself in drawing, so that it was life itself which overcame him and surrendered to him.