Ilia Zdanevitch was born in 1894 in Tiflis (the former name of Tbilisi), the capital of Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire. In 1912, while studying in Saint Petersburg, Ilia Zdanevitch frequented avant-garde circles that brought together painters and poets at the dawn of Russian Futurism.

In 1920, he left Georgia for Paris, where he reunited with his friends and quickly became part of the avant-garde scene. Under the pseudonym Iliazd, he gave numerous lectures and actively participated in organizing the Great Russian Balls. In 1923, a typographic masterpiece, *Ledentu le phare*, was first published under the name Iliazd. From 1940 through 1974, Iliazd then conceived and produced a series of works for which he was the sole creator.