De ou par Marcel Duchamp ou Rrose Sélavy (La Boîte-en-valise)
La Boîte-en-valise (box in a suitcase) is a type of mixed media assemblage by Marcel Duchamp consisting of a group of reproductions of the artist's works inside a box that was, in some cases, accompanied by a leather valise or suitcase. Duchamp made multiple versions of this type between 1935 and 1966. Titled "From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy" ("The Box in a Valise") ("de ou par Marcel Duchamp ou Rrose Sélavy" ["Boîte-en-valise"], Duchamp conceived of the boxes as a portable  museum:Instead of painting something new, my aim was to reproduce the paintings and objects I liked and collect them in as small a space as possible. I did not know how to go about it. I first thought of a book, but I did not like the idea. Then it occurred to me that it could be a box in which all my works would be collected and mounted like in a small museum, a portable museum, so to speak. This is it, this valise. Design. Launched in 1935 and sold from 1941 by subscription in the United States , the box-in-a-suitcase is based on the idea of the condensed universe of the and a cabinet of curiosities as a portable museum. The work consists of a brown leather carrying case (the prospectus describes it as a "leather pull-out box"), 40 x 37.5 x 8.2 cm, containing 69 reproductions of the major works by Duchamp, including many photographs, lithographs and miniature replicas of ready-mades like "Fountain", and reduced-sizes models on (cellulose acetate) such as "The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even." From 1941 to 1966, 312 boxes were produced for subscribers. The first  series, numbered XX/XX, (known as luxury editions) contain an original work by Duchamp on the inside lid of the case. All are signed "De ou par Marcel Duchamp ou Rrose Sélavy" ("From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy"). The 1914 box. Since 1913, Duchamp had imagined a box edited in several copies, containing reproductions of his works and his notes: the first version is from 1914, which brings together facsimiles of the first sketches and preparatory notes for "The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even", reproduced on 13 silver glass plates; there are 3 copies, five copies  according to others, one of which is at the Centre Georges Pompidou, another is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The container for the box was a commercial cardboard box for photographic plates. In an Interview with Pierre Cabanne, Duchamp explains: The 1914 box contains facsimile notes and three photographs of a piece of string mounted on canvas and a note that led to the work: 3 Standard Stoppages. It also contains a single drawing of a cyclist riding uphill titled "Avoir l'appenti du soleil (To Have the Apprentice in the Sun)." One of the notes in  the box makes an early reference to Duchamps last work: "Étant donnés", "Etant donné que ...; si je suppose que je sois souffrant beacoup ..." Section::::"The Green Box". In 1934, Duchamp made a new box that contained new preparatory notes for "The Large Glass" ("The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even"), a collection of eight years of ideas, reflections, thoughts; 93 documents in total (written notes, drawings, photographs). The "Large Glass" had been badly damaged upon its return from an exhibition at the Brooklyn museum of art in 1926 to its owner, Katherine Dreier, who lived in West Reading, Connecticut. Duchamp  repaired the glass in 1936. Each of those was lithographed and printed on paper that was similar to the paper he used in his preparations. Printed in an edition of 320 (with 20 containing an original work numbered I to XX; a series called the "luxury edition"), the final work was nicknamed "La Boîte verte" ("Green Box") and bears the inscription "The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even" in punched-out caps. The publisher is listed as Rrose Sélavy, Through André Breton, Duchamp explained in 1932 that he intended to give the notes a public reading. Section::::"The Box in  a Valise". In 1935 Duchamp wrote in a letter to Katherine Dreier: "I want to make, sometime, an album of approximately all the things I produced." Between 1935 and 1941 Duchamp create a number of boxes called "The Box in a Valise" or "From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Selavy," that contained three 3-dimensional replicas of his works; "Paris Air", "Underwood" and "Fountain". The work was released in seven series, A through G. The first series, A, is numbered 1/XX though XX/XX and is a deluxe edition containing an original work of art, mounted in the  lid of the box. It contains replicas of Duchamp's works mounted in a wooden frame that slide out in two wings, steadied by brass clips. The case contains 69 reproductions. The colour reproductions were produced using an already obsolete technique called pochoir, where a stencil was used to apply colour on a black-and-white reproduction, making every image, in a way, an original. The works in the deluxe edition consist of a plywood box, fitted inside a leather-covered suitcase. When the box is opened, the frame is exposed in the form of an "M" for "Marcel". Duchamp  eventually tired of creating the boxes himself and hired assistants to aid in their construction, including Xenia Cage and Joseph Cornell. Series F were produced until 1966 and are in a red leather box. In addition to the standard 68 works in the previous series, the F series contains 12 additional works, including the "Wedge of Chastity" and "Objet-dart. "The Large Glassis reproduced on (cellulose acetate). The color reproductions created using the pochoir technique took approximately 8 weeks to make. They were based on extensive colour notes taken by Duchamp, who travelled to visit each work and take notes . Prints contain approximately 30 individual colours. Around the same time that Duchamp worked on the "Box in a Valise", Walter Benjamin published "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." While Benjamin lamented the loss of the artwork's aura, Duchamp appears to have embraced it. Duchamp delighted in the fact that critics at the time still clung to the auratic notion of the singular art work and considered the work a print edition, not a work of art in itself. Benjamin himself, on the other hand, in 1937 in his diary noted: "Saw Duchamp this morning, same  café on the Boulevard St. Germain. Showed me his painting, Nude Descending a Staircase, in a reduced format, coloured by hand, en-pochoir. Breathtakingly beautiful." Rosalind Krauss describes how the reproductions became originals (stamped by the artist's hand), yet resisted the notion of artistic singularity in both their status as prints and their identities as miniaturized copies of singular artworks. The reproductions carry a stamp from a notary, who authenticated the facsimiles at the request of Duchamp. As scholar David Joselit argues, though the reproductions appear to be commemorating Duchamp's oeuvre in order to consolidate his artistic reputation , the compulsive act of repetition both constitutes and destroys the self: Duchamp treats his own identity as a readymade. Section::::"The White Box". In 1966, Cordier & Ekstrom edited a new edition, "A l'inifintif" ("In the infinitive") also called "The White Box", gathering new unpublished notes from the period 19121920 in an edition of 150. The box contains 79 facsimiles of notes from 191423 in a Plexiglas case of 33.3 x 29 x 3.8 cm. Legacy. The Fluxus group borrowed the idea of the "Boite-en-valise" for their "Fluxkits". Museum collections. 1934. Tate "The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors Even  (The Green Box)"