Ivorian Frédéric Bruly Bouabré was born in 1923 in Zéprégühé. Inventor of his personal alphabet ‘bété’, founder of his own religion and poet, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré devised his own system and aesthetics of signs and symbols. From one small drawing to another with a direct and essential style, he reinterpreted the world and mapped out a disconnected vision of that world.

He succeeded in becoming one of the most celebrated visual artists participating in major shows such as Les Magiciens de la Terre (1989), Documenta XI (2002) and in the core exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 2013. Bouabré died aged 91 on January 28, 2014.