Eau et Gaz à tous les étages

Artist Marcel Duchamp (French, 1887-1968)

Author André Breton (French, 1896-1966)

Author Henri-Pierre Roché (French, 1879-1959)

Date1959

Dimensionsbox: 13 3/4 x 10 7/16 x 2 3/16 in. (350 x 265 x 55mm)
book: 12 1/2 x 9 1/2 x 1 1/2 in. (318 x 241 x 38mm)
page: 12 3/16 x 9 3/16 in. (310 x 233mm)

MediumOriginal collage: torn paper silhouette on black flocked paper Original prints: facsimile ready-made on the box cover with pochoir lettering; collotype reproduction of "The Large Glass" with pochoir coloring Reproductions: 2 line block reproductions in color, collotypes of paintings, assemblages, ready-mades, drawings, and photographs, some in colors Text: letterpress Paper: cream Crèvecoeur d'Arches-Marais

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number

1979.107

Not on View

Label TextThis book-object is a quasi-document of Duchamp’s creation of The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), one of Duchamp’s major assemblages and most important works. The book-object itself is an assemblage consisting of loose page gatherings; a book; a torn-paper collage; paper patterned with reproductions of Duchamp’s artworks; and a construction enclosing a reproduction of The Large Glass under acrylic. On the front cover is a reproduction, in smaller scale, of an “imitated readymade”—a facsimile of a sign often attached to Paris apartment houses, which gives the book-object its title. When opened, the linen-bound case includes, on the left, a partition with magnetic closing for a collotype print with pochoir (stencil) coloring of The Large Glass under an acrylic sheet, and a collotype reproduction of the first pencil sketch for the work. On the right there is a compartment for the book with a signed self-portrait by Duchamp, a print of the Large Glass colored and signed by Duchamp, and a box with a pochoir print of a readymade also signed by Duchamp.Published Referencescf. Johnson, Robert Flynn, Artists' Books in the Modern Era 1870--2000: The Reva and David Logan Collection of Illustrated Books, San Francisco, 2001, no. 136 cf. Schwarz, Arturo, The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, New York: Delano Greenidge Editions, 2000, no. 563Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Pop Prints from the TMA Collection, July 7 - October 8, 2006.