MARCEL DUCHAMP: THE BOX IN A VALISE by Ecke Bonk; David Britt Review by: Joan Stahl Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Fall 1990), p. 153 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of North America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27948252 . Accessed: 14/06/2014 03:15 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. . The University of Chicago Press and Art Libraries Society of North America are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.78.108.37 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 03:15:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpress http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=arlisna http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=arlisna http://www.jstor.org/stable/27948252?origin=JSTOR-pdf http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp Art Documentation, Fall, 1990 153 pilation of Signs for Those Who May One Day Find Them Use ful (M?nchen: Kunstraum M?nchen e.V., c. 1985). Published in an edition of 1,000, Textum (Web) will be, for most readers of artists' books, a demanding and thought-provoking book worthy of their time and attention, but one that requires much of both. James H. Carmin University of Oregon - ARTISTS' BOXES AND COOKBOOKS MARCEL DUCHAMP: THE BOX IN A VALISE / Inventory of an Edition by Ecke Bonk; translated by David Britt.?New York: Rizzoli, 1990.?324 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-8478-0979-X; LC 88-42715: $75.00. The idea came to Marcel Duchamp in 1935 and is docu mented in a letter he wrote to patron Katherine Dreier: "I want to make, sometime, an album of approximately all the things I produced." Boite-en-valise (Box in a valise) is the commonly known title of the multiple de ou par Marcel Du champ ou Rrose S?lavy and the physical manifestation of the idea esteemed by the artist. Further in the correspondence to Dreier he warns, "And please don't speak of this as simple ideas are easily stolen." Between 1935-1940 Duchamp created 69 items, minia turized replicas of the most important works in his career, reflecting artistic turning points. The facsimiles included col lotype reproductions in black and white and color, objects, and a celluloid reproduction of the Grand Verre. The items were assembled in a box, carefully and elaborately designed with pullouts and hinges to unfold as an exhibition space in which to view the work. Technically the title Boite-en-valise referred to the first in seven series, 24 deluxe boxes each containing a different original by Duchamp. The Boites or standard version, followed in production and distribution. It comprised six series?four containing 68 items and two con taining 80 items in which the valise was replaced by a box; each series was differentiated by the color or material used as covering for the box. The idea of reducing a considerable amount of work into a small object interested Duchamp; beyond that he claimed to have no specific intention behind the Boite-en-valise. By 1935 he had long stopped painting, having secured his place in the history of art with the controversial painting Nude Descend ing a Staircase, exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show. Du champ's ethos did not allow him to redo what he had done before. Each of his works probed different questions; paint ing, in general, had ceased to be the best medium through which to present his ideas. He remarked, "because I had produced little, because I still regarded myself as a painter at that time, I thought it would be better to put it all together because they were already all together at [Walter] Arensberg's.. . . Everybody called me a painter, so I'd have looked an idiot if I said I wasn't one. . . . Once I started to think that it could all fit into a little suitcase, it began to look interesting, from an information point of view. But, as I said, it was all done without any very clear idea in mind." Boite-en-valise was Duchamp's third multiple. In early 1934 he had collected and reproduced, in facsimile, notes he made in 1912-17, in which he recorded the evolution of the Grand Verre. Boite verte, as it came to be known, was the viewer's guide to the Grand Verre. Shortly thereafter Duchamp made a limited edition of his optical series Rotorelief. Boite-en-valise functioned similarly to Boite verte; the earlier work was a road map of sorts to Duchamp's greatest piece, while the later multiple was an overview of the artist's lifework. A genius at literal and visual puns, and a skeptic regarding language, Duchamp made few comments about himself or his work. One comment, made in 1957 at the conclusion of an interview, rings true: Duchamp laughed, "I think I am a meticulous man." Certainly Boite-en-valise and subsequent Boites validate that remark. Duchamp was very involved in the reproductive process but in an untraditional way. Many of the works were reproduced through collotype printing, with coloring applied by hand using stencils. Although the hand work involved in the facsimiles was delegated to special stu dios and workshops, Duchamp selected appropriate material for reproduction and organized the operations necessary for assembly. His involvement blurred the distinction between an original and mechanical multiple. Each reproduction was done piecemeal in facsimile. He commented, "Everything I was doing demanded precision work over a long enough period ... I worked slowly; consequently I attached to it an importance comparable to anything one takes great care with." Ecke Bonk worked for years, with the support of the Marcel Duchamp estate, in this detailed inventory of the genesis, creation, and distribution of a remarkable work of art. The bulk of the book consists of six sections. In the first, Bonk presents brief introductory remarks that highlight Duchamp's interest in precision painting, the relationship between chance and precision painting, and his recognition of the equality of both which led him to formulate his concept of the "ready-made." Bonk singles out Duchamp's interest in optics as a means of exploring the opposition between the viewer and the viewed, his obsession with chess as a means of resolving the antithesis between strategy and chance, his feelings about the art market and his view that art does not need a public, and his theorization of facsimile as a work of art. The second section contains colored plates of each item in the Boites. In the third section, Bonk gives a detailed chro nology of the making of the 69 items, between 1935-1940, and the assembly and publication between 1941-1971. These chronologies are illustrated with many photographs. Section four, an inventory of each item, follows; the inventory pro vides dimensions, material, labeling, production notes, re productive method, as well as correspondence and notes that document the minutiae involved in each facsimile. The fifth section of the book is a thorough documentation of the deluxe boxes, including a color reproduction of each of the originals; Bonk has included the provenance for each. Sec tion six contains color reproductions of the seven series of Boites, showing the different exteriors. The book concludes with biographical data and a sizeable bibliography. Bonk, like Duchamp, has been meticulous in his assembly of information. He has made available to a wide audience an important but little-known and rarely seen work of modern art. The volume is handsomely constructed, carefully laid out, and heavily illustrated; 164 of the 516 illustrations are in color. Since Boite-en-vaiise and Boite were produced piece meal over many years with numerous slight alterations and variations, Bonk had a mammoth job in tracking the informa tion and organizing it. This scholarly record will find a recep tive audience among advanced students of 20th-century art, and is recommended for college, university, and museum collections that concentrate on this period. Most public li brary collections will be better served by general mono graphs on Duchamp. Joan Stahl National Museum of American Art THE FUTURIST COOKBOOK / FT. Marinetti; translated by Suzanne Brill; edited with an introduction by Leslie Cham berlain.?San Francisco: Bedford Arts, 1989.?176 p.: ill.? ISBN 0-938491-30-X (cl); 0-938491-31-8 (pa); LC 89-17705: $29.95 (cl); $19.95 (pa). This year's menu of new publications lists two guides to artists' palates: one cookbook is by an Impressionist and the other by two Futurists. Monet's Table: The Cooking Journals of Claude Monet by Claire Joyes (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990) is a straightforward book of French cooking, illustrated with photographs and paintings of the house and gardens at Giverny, plus a few facsimiles of Monet's handwritten rec ipes. Sharp contrast is provided by Filippo Tommaso Mari This content downloaded from 195.78.108.37 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 03:15:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp Article Contents p. 153 Issue Table of Contents Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Fall 1990), pp. 127-169 Front Matter FORGING A SCHOLARLY ALLIANCE: ART HISTORY AND INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES [pp. 127-128] INTERACTION OR INTERVENTION? PROMOTING INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES TO RESEARCH IN ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY [pp. 129-130] RETOOLING: FEMINIST FINDINGS AND FRUSTRATIONS [pp. 131-133] BHA/BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE HISTORY OF ART/BIBLIOGRAPHIE D'HISTOIRE DE L'ART [pp. 134-136] ALAS, THE FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE: THOUGHTS ON THE SYMBIOSIS OF SCHOLARS, INFORMATION MANAGERS AND SYSTEMS EXPERTS [pp. 137-138] SCHOLARS GO ONLINE [pp. 139-141] SHORT TAKES ON SPECIAL COLLECTIONS: A Landmark Thomas Eakins Collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts [pp. 142-143] ARLIS/NA NEWS SECTION FROM THE PRESIDENT [pp. 144-145] ARLIS/NA HEADQUARTERSâA BRIEF HISTORY [pp. 145-147] FROM THE EDITOR [pp. 147-147] FROM THE TREASURER [pp. 147-147] BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTES [pp. 148-149] THE REVIEW SECTION Review: untitled [pp. 151-151] Review: untitled [pp. 151-151] Review: untitled [pp. 151-152] Review: untitled [pp. 152-152] Review: untitled [pp. 152-152] Review: untitled [pp. 152-153] Review: untitled [pp. 153-153] Review: untitled [pp. 153-154] Review: untitled [pp. 154-155] Review: untitled [pp. 155-156] Review: untitled [pp. 156-157] Review: untitled [pp. 157-158] Review: untitled [pp. 158-158] Review: untitled [pp. 159-159] Review: untitled [pp. 159-160] Review: untitled [pp. 160-162] Review: untitled [pp. 162-163] Review: untitled [pp. 163, 165] Review: untitled [pp. 165, 167] PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED [pp. 167-168] Back Matter