Book released of Šalamun's poetry illustrated by his wife

The poems and illustrations were created in the 1980s, in a time when Šalamun and his wife, both the winners of the top Slovenian accolade for artistic achievement, felt they were closest to each other artistically.

Krašovec said at today's book launch that this was a time when she had had a creative block and had started drawing based on her intuition, which her husband supported.

She said that except in Mexico in 1979, when they first met, the pair had never created art together. "You need a lot of alone time and space to create art," she said.

But they had no problems adjusting to each other. "We got married rather late, when we were both already established artists and had our separate careers. Šalamun was one hundred percent dedicated to poetry, while I let about one percent to other things besides arts."

She described her late husband as a "notorious optimist" who had always rejoiced in other people's achievements and wondered why others did not rejoice in his.

Some of the poems and drawings in the book correspond very well with each other, others not so much, but they all contain a lot of playfulness, humour, erotics and whiteness, editor Nela Malečkar said.

A new poetry collection featuring poems from five manuscripts Šalamun edited before his death will also be released shortly by publisher Beletrina, Krašovec announced.

Šalamun was one of the most prolific Slovenian poets, having issued almost 50 poetry collections, which earned him numerous prestigious awards in Slovenia and abroad, including the Prešeren Prize in 1999.

Having crated more than half of his collections in the US, where he lived for a while, he is often listed among the best US poets.

He died in Ljubljana on 27 December 2014, aged 73.

Krašovec is this year's Prešeren Prize laureate and is considered one of the most important Slovenian contemporary female artists.