1900),[2] a cavalry officer stationed in Africa (as well as a not particularly successful writer and editor), but had a contentious relationship with her mother, his third wife, Helene Pauline Heerdt.

[2][6] While the UFA produced all the Nazi propaganda films, Zürn primarily worked in a department creating animating commercials for products such as shoes and cigarettes.

[2][6] Despite the fact that it was the national film company, she supposedly remained ignorant of the atrocities being perpetrated by the Nazis, or at least to their extent, until she chanced upon an underground radio report describing the concentration camps in 1942.

[4] For the next few years Zürn eked out a living writing short stories for newspapers and radio plays and became romantically involved with the painter Alexander Camaro.

[6] Shortly after separating from Camaro in 1953,[3] she met artist Hans Bellmer at an exhibition of his work at either the Maison de France[3][8] or at the Galerie Springer[3] in Berlin (accounts differ).

Not long afterward, she moved with him to Paris, becoming his partner and model, most famously in a series of photographs that Bellmer took of Zürn bound tightly with rope.

[6] In Paris, Zürn began experimenting with automatic drawing and anagrams, pursuits Bellmer had a longstanding interest in and encouraged her to pursue.

[8] Despite her ongoing battle with mental illness, Zürn continued to produce work, and Michaux regularly brought her art supplies.

About six months later, in October 1970, the 54-year-old Zürn committed suicide by leaping from the window of the Paris apartment she had shared with Bellmer, while on a five-day leave from a mental hospital.

Several recurring archetypal characters appear in the book: the idealized father, the despised mother, and a troubled girl with masochistic tendencies.

[8] Disconcertingly, Zürn's death seems to be foreshadowed in the text as the protagonist of Dark Spring eventually commits suicide by jumping out of her bedroom window.

[10] Her fantastical, precisely rendered works are populated by imaginary plants, chimeras, and amorphous humanoid forms, sometimes with multiple faces emerging from their distorted bodies.

[6] Unlike her writings, her graphic works haven't been as widely circulated outside of private collections, auctions, gallery storage rooms and national archives.

[14] Artists such as Breton, Man Ray, Hans Arp, Joyce Mansour, Victor Brauner and Gaston Bachelard attended this exhibition and her work was well received.

[2][6] Zürn is one of the few women associated with the Surrealist movement; others include Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning, Frida Kahlo, Kay Sage, Eileen Agar, Ithell Colquhoun, Leonor Fini, Toyen, Remedios Varo, and Valentine Hugo.