The art of the  early avant-gardes is usually analysed under two main paradigms: that of the unique piece of work whose singularity stems from a break with existing foms, a shock effect, and that of multiplicity, discontinuity in the supporting space. But there is a third, often forgotten paradigm, that of the archive. This is the subject of this book, which analyses its sources, precedents, development and the chief examples throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. It looks at the work of visual artists who record, collect, store or create images that, once "archived" have become inventories, thesauruses, atlases or albums. These artists use the archive as a link between memory and writing, a fertile territory for theoretical and historical scrutiny, or as a space to reconstuct utopian visions.