Broodthaers reduces ''Un Coup de Dés'' to its structure - or to put it another way he elevates the structure of the work to a concept worthy of study in its own right, thus acknowledging Mallarmé's own fetishistic attention to this aspect of his work. Rendering the structure concrete, visible, almost tactile, Broodthaers offers a conceptual analysis of Mallarmé's poem across the distance of a nearly a century...It would be hard to imagine a more subtle treatment of Mallarmé's work, or one more capable of demonstrating its essential properties, than this reworked book by Broodthaers. — Johanna DruckerOften included in exhibitions tracing the history of the artist's book, the work is seen as a seminal example of the European post-avant-garde. It is often referred to simply as ''Un Coup de Dés''.
Concrete Poetry
Mallarmé and Magritte
Broodthaers had lived in poverty as a poet in Brussels for twenty years before becoming an artist in 1964. His first exhibition, at the Galere Saint-Laurent, included two unsold parcels of his fourth book of poetry, ''Pense-Bête'', encased in plaster. This was the first of many works that 'employed techniques associated with poetry but applied by him not only to words but to images and symbols.' ''Un Coup de Dés'' would become the most famous instance of Broodthaers' interest in setting up a contradiction between the written word and a visual image 'to the profit of the subject.' Broodthaers had been given a copy of Mallarmé's ''Un Coup de Dés'' in 1945 by the Belgian surrealist painterAs for the idea of establishing a direct relationship between literature and the plastic arts, I'm afraid I have done so by taking as a subject ''A Throw Of The Dice'', by Mallarmé !!! — BroodthaersMallarmé had written the poem in 1897 and left copious notes as to how it should be typeset, instructions that were finally carried out 16 years after his death, in 1914. The poem was famous for its extraordinary typography, which anticipated the 20th century interest in graphic design and
Mallarmé is the source of all contemporary art... it unconsciously invents modern space. — Broodthaers, 1970
The Literary Exhibition
Broodthaers' exhibition 'Exposition Littéraire autour de Mallarmé' at the Wide White Space Gallery, Antwerp, December 1969 consisted of a copy of Mallarmé's book 'opened so that, (as nearly always when a book is put in an exhibition) only two pages were visible. The meaning is there but cannot be entirely reached.' A series of metal plates, made of anodised aluminium, engraved with black impressions standing in for the text, were hung on the wall whilst a recording of Broodthaers reciting the poem was played continuously for the duration of the exhibition.The word was "there", more "real", because three dimensional, than the original pages but, of course, negative and illegible. Meanwhile, the tape-recorded voice of the artist read out the poem repeatedly, it was "there" but not simultaneously and continuously present like the words of the poem.
The book
After a brief introduction citing the original edition published in 1914 by Librairie Gallimard, the book starts with the entire poem written as a block of text which is rectangular if the type of Mallarme's poem is 'regular' and oblique if the type from Mallarme is italic. 12 double spreads follow, with immaculately laid out black shapes standing in for the text. The work is soft bound and feels quite insubstantial. The cover is a near-perfect facsimile of the original cover, but with the word 'image' replacing 'poem' in the centre of the design. The edition was published in Antwerp to coincide with the exhibition on 25 November 1969. 10 copies of the work - unbound, numbered I-X, printed onto 12 aluminium sheets - were made available, along with 90 copies printed on translucent paper and 300 copies on normal paper. The translucent edition came with two sheets of white card cut to the size of the book so that individual pages could be isolated by the reader if they so wished.Reception of the book
The book, like Broodthaers' work in general, has gradually grown in stature since his death in 1976, and has found its way into a number of important collections, including MOMA, V&A, and theReferences
* Un Coup de Dés Jamais n'Abolira Le Hasard, Broodthaers, 1969 * Marcel Broodthaers, Catalogues des Livres, 1957–75, Galerie Michael Werner, Köln 1982 * Marcel Broodthaers, Tate Gallery, 1980 * Oxford Art Online, Essay on Broodthaers by Michael ComptonExternal links
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coup de Des Jamais N'Abolira Le Hasard (Broodthaers) Belgian art Artists' books Conceptual art Modern art 1969 books Adaptations of works by Stéphane Mallarmé