La septième face du dé: poëmes-découpages (The Seventh Side of the Die)

Poet Georges Hugnet and artist Marcel Duchamp created this visually stunning example of Surrealist collaboration. The side-stitched, bound book contains a series of 20 poems created with text from other sources such as newspapers and fashion magazines. Hugnet called this process “poem-découpages.” Each spread of the book features a poem on the left page and a visual collage on the right. Thematically, the poems and the images reflect a sense of erotic reverence and absurdity. Duchamp repeatedly collaged the naked female form into fantastical situations conjoined with inanimate objects (for example, a figure with feminine legs, a clamshell torso, and a clock for a head).

On the cover, an image of Duchamp’s readymade work Why Not Sneeze, Rrose Selavy? shows a birdcage filled with 152 pieces of marble carved to resemble sugar cubes, a thermometer, a porcelain dish, and a piece of fish bone. Embossed lettering spells out the title, which translates to “The seventh face of the die.” The image of Duchamp’s strange readymade above an equally nonsensical title exemplifies Surrealism’s proclivity for absurdity and humor, as well as the conversation between image and text.