Originally conceived as a screenplay by Blaise Cendrars, La Fin du monde was instead published as a novel when funding for the movie fell through. The story is a satire in which God, in the guise of a cigar-smoking American businessman, promotes an apocalyptic war on earth as entertainment for the god Mars. In the book format, Léger's illustrations become integral to conveying the filmic progression of the text. Amid his illustrations, Léger includes fragments of Cendrars's text as boldly colored stenciled and block letters, inspired by his love of street signs and silent-movie titles. His dynamic, fractured compositions create a simulation of the moving images of film as the pages of the book are turned.

Publication excerpt from Deborah Wye, Artists and Prints: Masterworks from The Museum of Modern Art, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2004, p. 72