The publication history of Madame Edwarda is complex. Written hastily in the autumn of 1941, the book was published in December under false pretenses, starting with the author's chosen pseudonym, Pierre Angélique, inspired by the thirteenth-century mystic Saint Angela of Foligno. The second edition appeared in 1945 - and not in 1942 as claimed - with illustrations by Jean Fautrier, who signed it "Jean Perdu". A third edition was published in 1956 by Jean-Jacques Pauvert, this time without the commissioned engravings from Hans Bellmer, which were only used in a fourth posthumous edition published by Georges Visat in 1945.
For his collaboration with Bataille, before Alleluia catechisme de Dianus in 1947, Fautrier produced erotic vignettes that showcased bodies in the warm tones of heliography. Fautrier was the true architect of the work, choosing the old paper, the color of the engravings, etc.