In Sophie Calle’s latest project, On the Hunt, the personal ad is transformed from a brief, oft-parodied plea for love into a window that lays bare the hearts of the body politic. Calle excerpts personal ads published in Le Chasseur français, a hunting and nature magazine, between 1895 and 2010. Taken together, they form a catalogue of the most desirable qualities spanning twelve decades of dating. Most vitally, though, they call attention to the universality of longing.
Last week, at Paula Cooper Gallery in Chelsea, the New York Review of Books co-hosted a reading of Calle’s findings. The event, seeking to do a little match-making of its own, also doubled as a mixer for those “single and seeking.” Singles were asked to “don a dot” to let people know they were available for mingling.
The actress, and newly minted translator, Molly Ringwald joined other notable figures—critic and essayist Vivian Gornick, writers Katie Kitamura and Daniel Kehlman, among others—in reading selections from On the Hunt, alongside snippets from NYRB’s personal ad archive. Calle joined from her bed in Paris—she appeared via laptop zoom call and was held up to face the speaker throughout the entire reading.
While Ringwald read the Le Chasseur français ads in their original French, other readers opted for translations.
“Strident call,” writer Chris Heath read. “Tired of loneliness, eager for tenderness. Which young French lady, still of breeding age, farmer, Christian ideals, asset or property would loyally devote herself to the lonely farmer? Advanced age; poor; setback; generosity of spirit; noble feelings.”
Joana Avillez read: “Would the tall gentlemen with books under his left arm who waited on Park Avenue’s island at 83rd or 84th street for traffic to pass before walking West about noon on rainy November 5th care to write to the woman in black with black umbrella who walked East?”
Daniel Kehlman continued: “Butcher’s assistant. 27 years old. Wishes to meet person with butcher’s shop. With a view to marry. Thin need not apply.”
Before starting her recitation, Gornick remarked, looking flirtatiously at the numerous dots standing before her: “I haven’t decided whether or not I’m on the hunt.”
First conceived as À l’affût for the Musée de la Chasse in Paris (2017), On the Hunt is the work’s expanded and final form, now incorporating photographs and additional texts. The retrospective will travel to the Orange County Museum of Art, where it opens on January 29, 2026.
The readings are drawn from framed text panels, categorized by the most-used phrases— “Truly available,” “Busty, wide hips, preferably gentle,” “Good catch, able to replace late mother,” etc. Personal ads written by men are titled in red and those written by women are titled in blue. Mounted above each panel are double-sided framed photographs: one side showing a hunting stand, the other a nighttime image of an animal captured with an infrared camera (sourced from a wildlife study conducted near French highways). These visual pairings prompt the question posed by Calle—“Who’s the hunter and who’s the prey?”
“On the Hunt extends Calle’s longstanding exploration of power, trust, doubt, and intimacy in romantic desire,” a release from Paula Cooper reads. “With its historical scope, the work also maps shifting cultural attitudes toward love, gender roles, and personal agency across the twentieth century.”
The final panels, taken from dating apps, behold our day’s casual, no-strings-attached dating habits. These panels seem to ask, especially when compared with the historical arc of courtship that comes before them: are we more afraid of partnership, of vulnerability, of the hunt, than we were before?
