Rrose Sélavy
Published 1939; rebound 1940-1941
Mary Reynolds (American, 1891-1950) Written by Marcel Duchamp (American, born France, 1887-1968)
Paris
Marcel Duchamp titled this book after his female alter-ego, Rrose Selavy. Fascinated by the psychological power of humor, Duchamp chose the surname as a clever riff on the common French phrase c'est la vie. The pronunciation of the first name Rrose sounds like Eros, making the name’s translation to “love/sex, that’s life!”
Presented with this unique context, Mary Reynold’s binding of Duchamp’s work adds another layer of Surrealist play through her decision to deboss the title into cardboard and frame it with rope.
The book’s endpapers display bold drawings of insects over pochoir (stencil) prints of foliage. Two of the insects—the Malaysian giant leaf bug and the marsh crane fly—have the evolutionary ability to camouflage themselves into their environment by mimicking something else. This idea of mimicry inspired the Surrealists, possibly because of an essay by Roger Caillois titled “Mimicry and Legendary Psychasthenia,” published in the Surrealist magazine Minotaure in 1935. With this collection of puns, Duchamp presented a camouflaged version of himself via the persona of Rrose Selavy.
Full sienna, pink, and beige goatskin with cotton cord, grey-card onlays with trial stamps of a typographic plate made for Duchamp's Box in a Valise. Endpapers printed in pochoir with fern-leaf pattern and hand-drawn insects in black ink