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(publishing) A book where two texts are bound together, with one text rotated 180° relative to the other, such that when one text runs head-to-tail, the other runs tail-to-head.
2011 July 28, David Barnett, “Tête-bêche books make a speculative return”, in The Guardian:
It's an odd little confection, the tête-bêche, but it's oddly pleasing. Each author gets a fair crack of the whip, with their own cover and top-billing, and the illusion of two separate books makes a head-to-tail volume seem somehow to be good value.
From tête + bêche(vet), the latter being an archaic word for "double-ended," e.g. lit bêchevet(“bed with heads at either end”), ultimately from Latin biceps(“two-headed”).
1978, Georges Perec, chapter 38, in La Vie mode d'emploi:
Ils décidèrent de remplacer ce valet perdu par un morceau de papier de format identique sur lequel ils dessineraient un bonhomme tête-bêche, un trèfle (♣), un grand V, et même le nom du valet.
They decided to replace the missing jack with a piece of paper of the same size on which they would draw a man with heads pointing up and down, a club, a big J, and even the word "jack."
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