Les Transformateurs

Duchamp
Duchamps
trans/formers

Jean-Franois LYOTAR D
crits sur lart contemporain et les artistes
Writings on Contemporary Art and Artists

Sous la direction de
Herman Parret
(Universit de Louvain [Leuven])
Rdacteurs adjoints:
Vlad Ionescu (Universit de Louvain [Leuven]),
Peter W. Milne (Santa Clara University,
Santa Clara)
Avec la collaboration de
Christine Buci-Glucksmann
(Universit de Paris viii),
Geoffrey Bennington et
Dalia Judovitz (Emory University, Atlanta),
Dolors Lyotard (Universit du LittoralCte dOpale),
Grald Sfez (Khgne, Lyce La Bruyre,
Versailles)

General editor:
Herman Parret (Leuven University)
Associate editors:
Vlad Ionescu (Leuven University),
Peter W. Milne (Santa Clara University,
Santa Clara)
In collaboration with
Christine Buci-Glucksmann
(Universit de Paris viii),
Geoffrey Bennington and Dalia Judovitz
(Emory University, Atlanta),
Dolors Lyotard (Universit du LittoralCte dOpale),
Grald Sfez (Khgne, Lyce La Bruyre, Versailles)

Les cinq volumes de la prsente collection rassemblent

les crits du philosophe franais Jean-Franois Lyotard
sur lart contemporain et les artistes. Les textes sont
publis dans leur version originale en franais
et dans leur traduction en anglais. Un grand nombre
de textes non publis, dposs au Fonds Jean-Franois
Lyotard de la Bibliothque Doucet Paris, sont repris
dans ces recueils. Les volumes sont amplement illustrs
par les uvres dart commentes par Lyotard.
Les cinq volumes comportent une introduction biobibliographique d Herman Parret et une postface
dautres spcialistes de la pense lyotardienne.

The five volumes of the present collection contain the writings

of the French philosopher Jean-Franois Lyotard on contemporary art and artists. These texts are published in their
original version in French and their translation in English.
A great number of unpublished texts, preserved at the Fonds
Jean-Franois Lyotard of the Doucet Library in Paris, are
presented for the first time in these volumes. They are largely
illustrated by the works of art Lyotard comments upon.
The five volumes contain a bio-bibliographical introduction
by Herman Parret and an epilogue by other experts of Lyotards
thought.

vol. i

Karel Appel. Un geste de couleur/Karel Appel. A Gesture of Colour (2009)

isbn 978 90 5867 756 3

vol. ii

Sam Francis. Leon de Tnbres/ Sam Francis. Lesson of Darkness (2010)

isbn 978 90 5867 781 5

vol. iii Les Transformateurs Duchamp /Duchamps trans/formers (2010)

isbn 978 90 5867 790 7
vol. iv Textes disperss sur lart contemporain et les artistes/Various Texts on Contemporary Art and Artists

isbn 978 90 5867 791 4
vol. v

Que peindre ? / What to Paint?

isbn 978 90 5867 792 1

www.lyotard.be

Les Transformateurs
Duchamp
Duchamps
trans/formers

Jean-Franois LYOTAR D
Postface de / With an epilogue by

Dalia Judovitz
Sous la direction de / Edited by

Herman Parret
Traduction / Translated by

Ian McLeod

Leuven University Press

Ouvrage publi avec le concours du

This book was published with the support of the

Centre National du Livre, Paris

dition originale franaise / Original French language edition :

Les Transformateurs Duchamp (Galile, Paris, 1977)
dition originale anglaise / Original English language edition:
Duchamps trans/formers (The Lapis Press, Venice CA, 1990)
2010 dition franaise / English language edition by
Leuven University Press / Universitaire Pers Leuven /
Presses Universitaires de Louvain
Minderbroedersstraat 4, B-3000 Leuven (Belgium)
Tous droits rservs. Sous rserve dexceptions dfinies expressment par la loi, il est formellement interdit de copier, verser dans
une banque de donnes automatise ou rendre public tout ou
partie de cette publication, ce de quelque manire quil soit et sans
lautorisation pralable, expresse et crite des diteurs.
All rights reserved. Except in those cases expressly determined by law,
no part of this publication may be multiplied, saved in an automated datafile or made public in any way whatsoever without the express prior written
consent of the publishers.

isbn 978 90 5867 790 7

d/2010/1869/7
nur: 730/640
Couverture et maquette / Cover and interior design:
Van Looveren & Princen, Bruxelles/Brussels
Illustrations / Illustrations: sabam Belgium, 2010

 Table des matires

Table of contents

Herman Parret:
10 Prface /
32 Preface

Jean-Franois Lyotard:
46 Les Transformateurs Duchamp
47 Duchamps trans/formers

Dalia Judovitz:
222 Postface /
239 Epilogue

Note: Nous reproduisons ici les versions originales de la traduction

amricaine des textes de Jean-Franois Lyotard et de la Postface.
Note: This edition contains the original version of the American translation
of Jean-Franois Lyotards text and of the Epilogue.

La Marie mise nu par ses clibataires, mme /

The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even

[Le Grand Verre/The Large Glass],

277.5 175.8 cm, 1915-1923, Philadelphia Museum of Art

ii tant donns : 1 la chute deau, 2 le gaz dclairage /

Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas,
assemblage/mixed-media, 242.5 177.8 124.5 cm, 1946-1966, Philadelphia Museum of Art

10

Prface
Herman Parret

Le prestige de lrotique
Que Marcel Duchamp soit liconoclaste et le fourvoyeur des valeurs modernistes,
quil soit lclaireur de lart contemporain, personne nen doute. La pratique du
readymade a problmatis la notion mme duvre dart tout comme la fonction
dartiste, et on ne sest pas encore remis de ce dur coup subversif qui a mis un point
darrt tant de certitudes modernistes.1 Sous un angle plus constructif, Duchamp
est glorifi comme le fondateur de lart conceptuel, et cest le readymade qui ferait
de lart une apologie du concept. Urinoir, goutte-bouteilles, porte-manteaux,
pelle, roue de bicyclette, tant de concepts-objets dont notre imaginaire dbut de
millnaire ne pourra plus jamais se dfaire. Toutefois, larsenal duchampien est
rempli avant tout de concepts-corps, et cest le corps que Duchamp conceptualise
ds 1909, lanne o il peint en impressionniste et avec tendresse le portrait de
sa sur Yvonne, deux ans plus tard en cubiste analysant le mouvement du corps
de la femme nue qui descend lescalier, pour laisser dfinitivement derrire lui
la peinture vers 1914 geste thortico-pratique radicalement subversif , pour
simmerger pendant les annes newyorkaises dans liconologie de la co-corporit
des Clibataires et de la Marie du Grand Verre [Ill. i], et pour culminer, aprs avoir
vcu sans voix dartiste pendant plusieurs dcennies, dans lhypostase nigmatique dun concept radical de corps, ce corps de femme aux membres amputs, dont
la masse de chair se construit autour dune vulve rase et abyssale : tant donns,
1 la chute deau, 2 le gaz dclairage [Ill. ii].
Les Transformateurs Duchamp de Jean-Franois Lyotard, rdig entre 1974 et 1977
en pleine priode de la redcouverte de Duchamp en France, ne concerne que ces
deux uvres majeures exaltant le corps dans sa conceptualit topologique. Le
corps selon Duchamp ne se laisse prdiquer daucune catgorie esthtique le
corps nest ni beau, ni sublime, ni gracieux, ni dgotant non plus. Aucune intriorit ne sy manifeste, aucune phnomnologie ny dcouvrira jamais quelque

Je reprends dans la premire partie de cette introduction les ides principales dveloppes dans mon
article Le corps selon Duchamp dans Prote. Thories et pratiques smiotiques, 287, 3, 2000, 89-100.

11

| Prface

signifiance. Il sagit en fait du corps essentiel, le corps marqu par le sexe et la mort,
par ros et thanatos, et par rien dautre. Quand Cabanne questionne Duchamp
sur le rle de lrotisme dans son uvre, il rpond : norme. Visible ou sousjacent, partout, et Duchamp nonce Jouffroy que le sexe est la seule chose quil
prend vraiment au srieux. Lyotard sexalte videmment devant ce prestige
de lrotique [114]. Les jeux de mots et cette masse fourmillante de notes, fabuleuses foison, peine interprtables, de la Bote Verte de 1934 et de la Bote Blanche
de 1966, introduisent pourtant une certaine distance lgard de ce srieux essentiel, par leur ton dhumour, dironie (Lyotard: ironisme daffirmation [142]),
dallgresse mme. Ces notes qui venaient dtre publies en 1975,2 ont t dment
tudies, interprtes et cites par Lyotard dans le livre que vous avez en main.
Sachons dailleurs que pour Duchamp le sexe et la mort nont rien de tragique, au
contraire ros, cest la vie, et en matire de sexe et de mort, nous renseigne le
doux sourire de Marcel, il ny a pas de solution puisquil ny a pas de problme.
Il va sans dire que liconologie duchampienne des corps nest pas charmante du
tout : ce sont des corps androgynes Rrose Slavy corps mcaniques, tout en
tuyaux et en trompes, corps fragmentariss, corps impuissants de sexe et de mort,
corps qui scoulent en difformit, corps prothtiss. Cest bien ce corps-l, dont
Duchamp nous livre le concept, ce corps essentiel que la topologie lyotardienne
reconstruit.
Duchamp vit partir de 1912 le fantasme de la grande machinede prcision .
La Vierge dabord [Ill. 1], esquisse prliminaire du Grand Verre [Ill. i], ne reprsente
pas tant lrotisme de la nudit, comme Nu descendant un escalier, mais elle connote
dj, par son titre mme, un univers explicitement sexuel. La Femme Artificielle
sinstalle, dans sa fminit, dans son artificialit. Le tubisme de Lger est
influent. Biologique, gyncologique, le corps de femme devient un amalgame
dlments mcaniques et de surfaces abstraites, en mouvement vers la droite,
donc en passage . Passage, comme route anatomique dune vierge vers une
marie, passage initiatique, mystique, vers la fminit accomplie. On aboutit ainsi
la figuration de la Marie dans le Verre, une Marie moins baroque, plus schmatique, plus compacte que la Vierge qui ntait quen passage. Le regard libidinal
et voyeuriste du mle est invit dissquer avec une prcision diagrammatique la
machine cadavrique de la Femme et il y dcouvre ses secrets intimes, des organes viscraux relis par des tubes, trompes et cylindres. Ce moteur alchimique,
2

Duchamp du signe [DDS], Paris, Flammarion (Coll. Champs), 1975 [1994]. A t publi dans la mme
collection en 1980 un autre recueil de Notes dont Lyotard na videmment pas eu connaissance au
moment de la rdaction de Les Transformateurs Duchamp.

12

| Prface

archtype de la Fminit, nexiste que par lobjectivation dans le regard du

mle. La Marie du Verre, aboutissement par schmatisation, par puration, rien
que les organes essentiels pour le fonctionnement essentiel, celui daimer pour
mourir. Luvre nous offre le rcit du voyage ttons tout au long des artres
de cette machine faire lamour. Jaillissement des liquides gazeux, transports,
retards, acclrs par le Moulin Eau, par la Broyeuse de Chocolat, parpills
par les Grands Ciseaux, recueillis par le Baratte-Ventilateur. Quelle impuissance
mle dans le passage vers le domaine femelle de la Marie ! La flche leste du
voyage du gaz dclairage se heurte aux Tmoins occulistes, et il ne reste que la
Lentille de Kodak pour contempler le dsir de la Marie. Comme les Clibataires,
la Marie elle aussi est tout panouissement. Sa mcanique complexe est solidement tenue en quilibre par la Gupe et la Girouette, en bas, et elle produit par
amour, comme une mre le lait amer de son sein, la Voix Lacte. Chair, nbuleuse
dsireuse, gnreuse, langage de la Marie qui ne sera pas cout, appel pour que
le gaz dclairage touche et provoque lorgasme vaporisant, explose dans la dcouverte de la quatrime dimension. On verra comment Lyotard exploite fond cette
thse duchampienne de la quatrime dimension, cet espace suprieur transcendant la banalit illusoire de la perception sensorielle, espace de lpanouissement
des corps. Duchamp se rfre souvent avec dlectation son Grand Verre comme
cette grande saloperie, une mtaphore rotico-mcanique, une iconographie
sans honte de lamour, une spculation a-sentimentale sur lopration dsire
mais non russie de dpucelage. Scrutons un instant la figuration de la Femme
Artificielle. Son organe principal est le Pendu femelle rattach en bas par la Gupe
ou le Cylindre-sexe et par la Girouette. Allonge, nue dnude par linsistance
des regards des clibataires la Marie est un petit moteur autonome dont les
besoins sont aliments par son propre parfum damour, essence damour, par les
tincelles de son magnto-dsir. Ces tincelles parfumes sont gnres dans la
Gupe et transportes dans le Pendu Femelle, rien que lgrement attach, tournant en rond sous la pression de lessence damour.
Le dpositaire smantique de ce programme iconographique est vaste et
ouvert, et maints interprtants peuvent tre construits en toute compatibilit.
Phnomnologiquement, la Marie nest pas sduisante, et plutt absurde. Elle
reste une inconnue, un hiroglyphe dchiffrer. Est-ce un fossile, le squelette dun
oiseau ? Forme humaine tout de mme puisque la figure est suspendue par un
anneau anneau nuptial, pourrait-on se demander un crochet. Insecte excellente mtaphore de linexorabilit de la pulsion sexuelle , pantin, marionnette,
pendue bien vivante puisque inspire par le souffle gazeux que son cylindre-sexe

13

| Prface

gnre, et quelle transmettra par des pulsations jouissantes la Voie Lacte.

Beaut impersonnelle et ple de desse lunaire autoritaire, sorte de Salammb,
dHrodiade, de Salom, sorte de cygne mallarmen dans Le Vierge, le vivace et le bel
aujourdhui, digne et lucide, sachant que son dsir vapor cache mal sa frigidit.
Structuralement, le domaine de la Marie est plus confus, plus diffus que celui
des clibataires. Plus de lignes obliques, plus de courbes, le domaine de la Marie
semble plus biologique que gomtrique, plus organique sans doute que mcanique. Andr Breton, dans Phare de la Marie, lnonce ainsi : La Marie sa base est
un moteur. Mais avant dtre un moteur qui transmet sa puissance-timide elle est
cette puissance-timide mme. Cette puissance-timide est une sorte dautomobiline,
essence damour, qui, distribue aux cylindres bien faibles, la porte des tincelles de sa vie constante, sert lpanouissement de cette vierge arrive au terme de
son dsir.3 Par consquent, la puissance-timide est vitale et biologique avant de se
transposer dans le mcanique. Le dshabillement de la Marie dnude jusquau
corps interne et nous dvoile les contractions viscrales des organes. La Bote Verte
confirme lintrt de Duchamp pour les machines, machines vapeur, machines
fermentation, machines lectriques, machines optiques galement. Vapeur,
fermentation, tincelles lectriques, projection optique, en effet, guident, dans
le Grand Verre, le Voyage du gaz dclairage. Mais Duchamp est autant fascin par la
dissection anatomique et la radiographie des organes internes il prtend que la
radiographie de deux corps pendant la copulation procure une photo instantane
de la quatrime dimension...
Duchamp feuilletait souvent les catalogues dinstruments mdicaux, surtout des instruments gyncologiques, et il est certain quil a mdit sur la valve
Auvard, prsente dans le catalogue Hartmann de 1911,4 instrument qui, en
sinsrant dans lutrus, ralise le plus grand degr de proximit avec lessentiel
[Ill. 2]. Rconciliation, par consquent, du mcanique et du biologique, glissement mtonymique tourdissant du contenu vers le contenant. Ne rprimons
pas en cet instant cette dcouverte innommable. Le Pendu Femelle est une valve
Auvard, et la figuration duchampienne de la Femme Artificielle est ainsi linterface
du biologique contenant et du mcanique contenu, interface de lutrus moulant
la valve Auvard. Le dessin que Duchamp ralise en fvrier 1968, quelques mois
avant sa mort, nous montre sa dernire Marie [Ill. 3], enveloppe dans son halo
3
4

Dans Robert Lebel, Sur Marcel Duchamp. Avec des textes de Andr Breton et de H.P. Roche, Paris, Trianon
Press, 1959. Le texte de Breton, Phare de la Marie se trouve 88-94 (citation : 93).
Je dois cette information Juan Antonio Ramirez, Duchamp. Love and Death, Even, London, Reaktion Books, 1998, 139. Le livre de Ramirez pose les questions essentielles propos de Duchamp.

14

| Prface

fantasmatique, ce Pendu Femelle tout en chair cette fois. Continuit figurative de

la valve Auvard au Pendu Femelle, du Pendu Femelle la dernire Marie quil
amne avec lui dans la mort, la cohrence est passablement insupportable
Le rcit du Voyage du Gaz dclairage met en scne une fabuleuse tragdie
naturelle mais une tragdie qui devrait nous inciter lallgresse, non aux pleurs.
Duchamp, comme le voulait Nietzsche, dit OUI la vie. panOUIssement, blOUIssement, jOUIssance, au cur de ces trois mots typiquement duchampiens, il y a le mot
de la fin : OUI.5 Ni pessimiste, ni optimiste, la mise en scne du Grand Verre nous
confronte au rite de lamour, le besoin dpanouissement des Clibataires et de la
Marie, le besoin dune dcharge abondante de la semence, le besoin dune lactification gnreuse, semence et lait, liquides sacrifis dans le rite de lamour, en vain
peut-tre mais pas vraiment, utile tout de mme quand il faut apprendre mourir
tous les jours de sa vie.
Il va sans dire que le corps duchampien ne doit rien au canon esthtique classique, ce nest pas le corps de la vie moderne non plus, comme chez Manet, ce
corps na rien dexistentiel. Ce nest pas un corps vcu mais bien plutt le corps
dissqu sous lil du chirurgien, du gyncologue, corps toujours sous lil
des tmoins oculaires dans le Grand Verre, mais galement du voyeuriste qui perce
son regard libidinal travers les deux minuscules trous de la lourde porte qui rend
la femelle de tant donns [Ill. ii] qui se livre en peepshow, pour toujours intouchable. Lrotisme chez Duchamp est enttant, crbral, obsessionnel. tant donns sorganise tout entier autour du sexe bant, ras, glabre dune femme allonge comme daprs lorgasme. Lyotard suggre que la moiti droite du corps est
mle, la gauche fminine, le regardeur tant soumis lesprit de dfi de Duchamp
qui aime faire voir la duplicit androgyne [52]. En plus il est vrai que tant donns
tourne en drision LOrigine du monde de Courbet et cette perruque de blond sale
qui couvre le ventre de la femme expose dans ce tableau. Compar LOrigine du
monde, tant donns ajoute certainement de la profondeur comme troisime dimension et offre un surcrot de visibilit : la lumire est excessivement intense et la
chair trop grenue. Jean Clair propose la description suivante: Dans tant donns, [le corps] apparat comme une enveloppe sans intrieur, une carcasse vide, un
moule en creux, une coque sans chair, une pellicule, un leurre.6 Une seule main
est visible : elle brandit un Bec Auer incandescent et phallique, seule prsence
5
6

Cette remarque superbe est faire par Jean Suquet, Marcel Duchamp ou lblouissement de lclaboussure,
Paris, LHarmattan, 1998, 77.
Jean Clair, Sexe et topologie dans Marcel Duchamp, labcdaire, Paris, Centre National dArt et
de Culture Georges Pompidou, 1977, 55.

15

| Prface

mle, ce gaz dclairage fcondant mais tenu loin du sexe, non-rencontre encore
tout comme au temps du Grand Verre, lampe tenue encore pour illuminer maximalement lindniable punctum.7
Le passage de Jean Clair
Lintrt de Lyotard pour les deux chefs-duvre de Marcel Duchamp ne concerne
videmment pas le rcit reprsent ni liconographie idiosyncratique des images.
Lyotard dveloppe bien plutt une heuristique particulirement dconstructioniste de justice topologique [68]. Cette justice topologique construit
Duchamp en modle de pense politique [56]. La modlisation sloigne alors de
Platon, il va de soi, de Kant galement, et sapproche dOvide et dApule, et de
toute vidence du dernier Nietzsche [206]. Le locus de cette position peut paratre
incertain, inconsistant et contingent, et se manifeste pour lartiste et le philosophe-commentateur dans un genre de discours, un style qui aime sa contingence,
qui bricole ses fragments de doctrine, qui masque peine son apathie thorique
[142]. Il est futile dinterprter, nonce Duchamp et Lyotard avec lui, puisque
luvre est un espace de mtamorphoses dissimilantes [96], elle est incommentable, nayant pourtant rien de mystique, et inconsistante sans tre insignifiante
cest bien lincommensurable qui est report dans le style de lartiste et de son commentateur [54]. Cultivons le non-sens comme un trsor. Parlons de Duchamp en
phraseur machinal [56], parler mcaniquement de Duchamp est toujours sans
rfrence assignable [64]. Vive la prcision inexacte [110].
Quen est-il de la topologie politique que Lyotard se propose de penser dans
son livre sur Duchamp? On est surpris de voir dans Incongruences, la premire section du livre, que luvre de Duchamp est superposable une structure politique
de la socit, le lieu de louvrier devant la machine [56-62], mais il semble vite que
cette topologie politique concerne une autre guerre, celle que Duchamp mne
contre lil, contre la stupidit rtinienne [124], et Lyotard de citer maintes phrases des
notes dans Duchamp du signe en faveur dune certaine inopticit (DDS, 118): il
faut se tenir lcart de toute exprience visuelle (DDS, 110). Duchamp prche la
perception comme libre promenade, voire une perception tactile (DDS, 125):

Jean-Franois Lyotard donne la description suivante du punctum : La vulve quon ne peut manquer de remarquer, on ne voit que a, est dpouille de toute fourrure (alors que les aisselles sont
garnies, ce nest pas une enfant), les cuisses sont carteles, les grandes lvres en rection sont
ouvertes, elles laissent apercevoir non seulement les petites lvres tumescentes, mais lorifice
bant du vagin et mme les bulbes vestibulaires gonfls, autour de la commissure infrieure. La
vulve lve la vue ? ou : la vulve lve la vue ? [192].

16

| Prface

pas de vue densemble, mais un il sans mmoire [104]. Il est vrai et dangereux que
lil a besoin de croire, dunifier, dtre intelligent. Voil pourquoi, remarque
Lyotard, Duchamp peste contre la peinture rtinienne, contre lhorizon phnomnologique: bte comme un peintre. Il faut bien aveugler lil qui croit
voir quelque chose, il faut faire une peinture de ccit qui plonge la suffisance de lil
dans la droute [106].
Ce puissant discours contre loculocentrisme introduit galement une belle distinction entre lapparence dun objet et son apparition. Voici les dterminations de
Duchamp: la premire est lensemble des donnes sensorielles usuelles permettant davoir une perception ordinaire de lobjet (DDS, 120), et Lyotard remarque:
la seconde est le moule (formel) de la premire [180], heureux de souligner quil
sagit de deux espaces diffrents. Ce que voit le regardeur sur le Verre, cest lobjet
que lil compose, ce sont les apparences, les images qui impressionnent la rtine.
Opposes aux apparences et leur furtive machination exhibitionniste sont les
apparitions, ces matrices formelles, et leur asctisme tourn contre les habitudes
visuelles , et leur svre pdagogie machinique [188].
Cette topologie politique est videmment propre la pense lyotardienne
mais elle a su sappuyer sur quelques excellentes intuitions de Jean Clair dans
ces annes o le duchampisme triomphe en France. Jean Clair publie en 1975 son
Marcel Duchamp ou le grand fictif. Essai de mythanalyse du grand verre 8 o il tend un
Duchamp luisant et frais comme un poignard.9 Il faut se rappeler que Jean Clair
tait le commissaire de la grande exposition Duchamp de 1977 au Muse National
dArt Moderne (Centre National dArt et de Culture Georges Pompidou Paris).
Lyotard apprcie le livre de Jean Clair et y consacre un compte-rendu logieux
sous le titre de Marcel Duchamp ou le grand sophiste.10 Lyotard, tout comme Clair, note
que Duchamp choisit le camp de Kafka, Jarry, Nietzsche : les sophistes contre
les philosophes, les dissimilateurs contre les assimilateurs, les artistes contre
les raisonneurs, les machines clibataires contre la mcanique industrielle [84].
Duchamp, lanti-platonicien, lanti-euclidien, lanti-hermneute, se tourne contre le centre et la dernire instance, contre la Vrit exclusive, contre lhistoire
et contre Dieu, pour la mcanique des multiplicits et des intensits, lui le constructeur et lapologue de machines de sduction. Avec la machine, cet artifice de

8
9
10

Paris, Galile, 1975.

Voir le compte-rendu, note 10, 35.
LArt vivant, mars/avril 1975, 34-35.

17

| Prface

ruse, cen est fini de la nature, de la mesure, cest bien ce que ce dandy antiromantique, ironique nous enseigne avec ses concepts-corps. Mais Husserl et Alberti
galement, sont dtrns en faveur de Gaston de Pawlowski, Poincar, Dedekind
et Riemann : il faut voyager maintenant sur le plus de surfaces, tre mus par le
plus de passions, le plus de pulsions, Voyage au pays de la quatrime dimension, titre du
livre de Pawlowski11 que Duchamp a eu souvent entre les mains [164]. Le Duchamp
de Jean Clair auquel Lyotard rfre, est bien celui de cette gomtrie o il ny a
plus despace ultime, plus de lieu naturel, et cest ainsi que lespace du Grand
Verre devrait tre dchiffr, comme espace n-dimensions dont Jean Clair construit
une certaine topologie dans son livre. On tait habitu tant dinterprtations
de Duchamp passablement hermneutiques : sotriques (Breton), alchimiques
(Sanouillet, Lebel, Pontus Hulten, Linde), freudiennes et jungiennes (Schwarz),
cabalistiques (Burnham), honteusement religieuses (Calvesi), doucement symboliques (Paz). Par contre, Jean Clair traite le Grand Verre comme la mise en scne
dune machinerie sophistique despaces n-dimensions et Jean-Franois
Lyotard, dans sa contribution lAbcdaire, troisime volume de la publication
loccasion de la grande exposition de 1977, va appliquer dans son article Inventaire
du dernier nu cette mme mthode topologique tant donns (la version largie
de cet article forme le chapitre Charnires du livre que vous avez entre les mains).
Lyotard suit dailleurs une intuition architecturale bien plausible: que les deux
grandes uvres, le Grand Verre et tant donns, seraient des renvois miroiriques lune
de lautre12 Cette opration miroirique qui installe la charnire la plus essentielle, celle du Verre et dEtant donns, nest pas simplement spculaire et rplicative.
lopration miroirique on ne peut faire confiance parce quelle est ruse, elle

11
12

Paru en 1912. Nouvelle dition en 1962 chez Denol (Coll. Prsences du futur).
On posera alors la question: le Grand Verre et tant donns ne seraient-ils pas, lun de lautre,
dans une parfaite rciprocit, des renvois miroiriques? Sil tait possible, au sein dune tendue
quadridimensionnelle, de rabattre le Verre sur tant donns, de faire concider lun avec lautre,
alors la Marie apparatrait telle quelle est enfin, identifie, dans cet tat o intrieur et extrieur, dehors et dedans, sont une seule et mme chose (Sexe et topologie [rotisme], dans Abcdaire,
op.cit., voir note 5, 58.) Et Lyotard commente comme suit dans Les Transformateurs Duchamp: La
relation entre le Grand Verre et la dernire uvre (tant donns) est elle-mme une projection ou
un groupe de projections, qui fait passer tous les lments du Verre dans ceux du dernier Nu.
Chaque lment subit une transformation singulire. On devrait pouvoir trouver le dispositif
transformateur, qui doit tre trs complexe. Je dirai en bref que lon passe dune formulation
plastique asctique et critique, celle du Verre, une formulation populaire, pornographique, paenne, celle dtant donns, mais lune et lautre dun mme objet [] selon deux temporalits
incongruentes, mais symtriques, dans les deux grandes uvres : le temps du Grand Verre est
celui dune mise nu qui nest pas encore faite, le temps dtant donns celui dune mise nu qui
est dj faite. Le Verre est le retard du nu, tant donns son avance [74].

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| Prface

dissimule sans finalit, incongruence des semblables, gomtrie qui ne permet pas
du tout de conclure une duplicit identitaire [95-97]. Et Lyotard dinsister sur
le fait que le spculaire est issu dune esthtique et dune politique de la reprsentation, dune communicante logique des structures et des signes [132]. Cest
pourquoi le spculaire signitif est pleinement smiotique tandis que le miroirique
est topologique. On reviendra la tendance au dpassement du smiotique dans
la topologie lyotardienne.
Si le passage de Jean Clair a t essentiel pour la constitution de la pense
duchampienne de Lyotard [66], toute une gamme importante de la littrature sur
Duchamp a t exhaustivement tudie au cours de lcriture de Les Transformateurs
Duchamp. Une note manuscrite de juin 1976 [Ill. 4/5] dnombre sept volumes que
Lyotard se proposait de lire en fonction de la prparation de son texte. Il y avait
les crits de Duchamp qui venaient dtre publis sous le titre Duchamp du signe
(1975, sous 3.), une autre dition de textes de Duchamp en anglais (traduction par
Cleve Gray, 1967, sous 4.), ensuite les grands classiques: le Jean Clair dj prsent
(1975, sous 5.), le Jean Suquet (1974, sous 6.), les entretiens de Pierre Cabanne avec
Duchamp (1967, sous 1.), et galement Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp (1969) par
Arturo Schwarz, ouvrage de rfrence et inventaire le plus complet des uvres
de Duchamp (sous 2.), impressionnante foison dinformations tmoignant dun
srieux bien savant chez Lyotard. Dautres documents prparatoires, comme la
biographie de Duchamp [Ill. 6], le plan de Charnires [Ill. 7] et le plan densemble
dtaill [Ill. 8], le choix du titre [Ill. 9], en tmoignent davantage.
La prcision de la machine
La topologie politique prsuppose un concept-corps machinal. Le corps organique, pour Duchamp, est en fait une machine dont le mcanisme est un pige
tendu des forces naturelles [76]. Et Lyotard note comment Duchamp aime les
machines sans got ni sentiment, machines anonymes. Est supprime la question
de lauteur et de lautorit. Vive la mcanique de la machination. Les machines
duchampiennes sont des inventions singulires et spontanes [100] (par consquent,
non pas industrielles), elles ont une facult de ruse [78-80], elles sont dissimilantes, elles chappent au pouvoir et la technique [96-98]. Drles de machines, ces
machines sophistes [82], puisque batterie [] mtamorphoser [74], redistribuer les nergies, multiplier les dispositifs. En exploitant les propos sophistiques de Gaston de Pawlowski, Duchamp uvre pour ses machines vers une
gomtrie n-dimensions qui dicterait la mise en scne du Grand Verre et de tant
donns. Cette gomtrie topologique oriente globalement le commentaire lyotardien

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| Prface

du duchampisme. Alternatif cette topologisation mais complmentaire avec elle

est un point de vue qui pourtant domine nombre danalyses formelles des deux
chefs-duvre de Duchamp : plutt dorientation smiotique et peircienne, il
sagit dune qualification laide de la notion dindexicalit. Jen dis quelques mots
avant de passer aux catgories topologiques dans Les Transformateurs Duchamp.
Indices, empreintes, moulages
On peut soutenir avec droit (cest plus ou moins la position de Georges DidiHuberman) que lart de Marcel Duchamp, cest dire la smio-rotique de Rrose
Slavy, est indiciel. Aucun objet de la nbuleuse duchampienne nest symbolique ni iconique. Duchamp exalte lenchanement des diffrences infra-minces,
la mtonymisation des concepts, la contiguit des matires. Tout dynamisme
crateur est plac sous le signe de lempreinte, de la trace, du moulage. Mfiance de
lallgorie, du symbolisme. Le signifiant ne signifie pas par convention symbolique comme le langage srieux et lart message ou lart expressif, mais il signifie par la chance des associations mtonymiques. Ainsi signifie dailleurs cette
srie ininterrompue de calembours duchampiens. Lart ne raconte rien, ne renvoie
rien, il syntagmatise le convexe et le concave, le plein et le creux, la verge et la
vulve selon la gomtrie indicielle de linfra-mince. Rien de symbolique, par consquent, aucun renvoi un signifi par un signifiant arbitraire. Rien diconique
non plus puisque aucune ontologie de rfrents ninvite la mimsis. Lart est
lempreinte de la vie : sil y a distance entre art et vie, elle ne peut tre quinframince. Comme Objet-Dard [Ill. 10] est lindice de Feuille de vigne femelle [Ill. 11]. Les
fragments de chair essentiels de la machine sindexicalisent rciproquement.
Un bref commentaire sur et quelques exemples de deux stratgies duchampiennes dindexicalisation : la coupure et la prothse. La stratgie dindexicalisation la plus
dramatique est sans doute la coupure.13 Vingt Botes en valise de 1946 contiennent le
Paysage fautif [Ill. 12], et huit autres cette constellation sans titre de poils coups [Ill.

13

Lyotard mentionne comment Poincar reprend de Dedekind le syntagme thorie de la coupure : Pour diviser lespace, il faut des coupures que lon appelle surfaces; pour diviser les
surfaces, il faut des coupures que lon appelle des lignes; pour diviser les lignes, il faut des coupures que lon appelle points [164]. Et il cite Duchamp : Les lames de rasoir qui coupent bien
et les lames de rasoir qui ne coupent plus. Les premires ont du coupage en rserve. Se servir
de ce coupage ou coupaison (DDS, 47) [164-166]. Par consquent, la coupure nest pas absente
de larsenal duchampien, mais elle nest pas indicielle: elle nindique pas la contigut de deux
domaines matriels (pour Duchamp ce seraient deux domaines dapparence, et non pas des domaines dapparition) mais la construction dune limite formelle dans ce sens-l la coupure
pour Duchamp est bien proche de la charnire.

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| Prface

13]. Coupure au sens littral du terme : des poils de la tte, den dessous des aisselles et des poils pubiens sont colls sur un rectangle de plastique. Cette composition suggestive sert dindice du corps fminin. Paysage fautif est un rectangle de
toile noire, dcolore partiellement par les restes schs de sperme. Ce paysage
trange a pris de belles couleurs oxydes, et elle ne reprsente pas une faute plus
grave que celle dune masturbation dans le jeu rotique. Coupure des poils, jet de
sperme, autre stratgie dindexicalisation pointant vers le corps essentiel. La stratgie dindexicalisation culmine dans la prothse puisque linfra-mince rgle ici maximalement la gomtrie indicielle. With my tongue in my cheek (1959) [Ill. 14] reprend
une expression idiomatique en anglais qui signifie que lon parle sans lintention
dtre vraiment sincre. Lhumour, voire lironie, ne peut masquer le statut agonistique de cet autoportrait. Autoportrait en effet dun homme de soixante-douze
ans, bas-relief fabriqu de pltre sur papier avec dessin en crayon, mont sur du
bois. Pltre encore de la prothse comme le pltre de la Feuille de vigne femelle et de
lObjet-Dard. Duchamp met littralement la langue dans la joue et il la fait ainsi
gonfler. Le pltre est une moule qui remplit la joue creuse du vieil homme et lui
donne un relief exagr. Il sagit bien dun masque funraire mais lil ouvert
qui naurait pas pu tre pltr marque encore la vie bien que le regard soit fossilis. Lapparence est mortuaire, galement dans labsence de couleur, marche
vers la mort dun toujours vivant [Ill. 15]. La prothse en pltre gnre une double
signifiance. Dune part, elle remplit un manque, labsence de joue, labsence dun
corps en vie, mais, dautre part, par sa blancheur elle semble manger la vie en
progressant tentaculairement jusqu ce que toute la tte soit pltre, jusqu ce
que le masque funraire soit complet. La prothse prserve lillusion de vie travers limage de la mort. Par consquent, est figur ici le seuil de la vie devant la
mort, lempreinte de la mort dans la vie, le moulage inexorable de la vie par la mort.
Lcart vie-mort est infra-mince.
Parois, charnires, perspectives
Ce que les indices, empreintes, moulages sont la smiotique, les parois, charnires, perspectives le sont la topologie. Lomniprsence de ces matrices formelles dans le
commentaire lyotardien est absolue. La logique n-dimensionnelle de la paroi
dpasse sa gomtrie bi- ou tri-dimensionnelleo elle apparat comme la tranche
dun plan, comme une ligne [92], mais en tant que matrice de la quatrime dimension, elle nest pas visible pour lil, elle est par nature dissimilante [80], duplice,
sophistique. Lexplicitation dtaille de la logique de charnire [140] couvre

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| Prface

plus que la moiti du livre que vous avez en mains.14 Cest Duchamp lui-mme
qui introduit le termedans ses Notes : faire un tableau de charnire (DDS, 42);
Charnire: groupe doprations mais agissant par causalit ironique (DDS,
46), prcise Lyotard [144]. Il y a des charnires de toute porte et de toute tendue. La plus globalisante est celle du recouvrement (la commensurabilit) des deux
grandes uvres (dmonter une uvre pour la remonter comme/dans lautre).
La charnire entre les deux uvres est alors un oprateur paradoxal dincongruence
(oppose la congruence dautres types de relations gouvernes par la causalit
logique, comme limplication) [146]. Parmi les dizaines dautres charnires ,
plus locales, au niveau des micro-rcits[168], il y a encore une charnire cruciale,
dans le Verre, notamment les transversales sparant les deux rgions, mle et
femelle, autre relation dincongruence ou relation miroirique que lon a dj pu voquer [92].
Pourtant, cest bien la/les perspective(s) ou la projection de dimensions [70-72]
plutt les dispectives, suggre Lyotard [126-128] qui permettent la topologisation
plastique des deux uvres de Duchamp. Jean Clair a bien indiqu limportance de
la rflexion duchampienne sur la perspective, importance anthropologique en
quelque sorte. Cette spculation intellectuelle de Duchamp viserait la perspective comme relance indfinie du dsir, comme promulgation dune absence, elle
qui ne reprsente la vue un objet que pour mieux le lui drober. De cette peine ,
briser la glace dans un jeu amoureux dont le spectacle envisag est le dsir ,15
cest sans doute le commentaire le plus sensible de nos deux uvres. Duchamp,
et Lyotard aprs lui, insistent sur le fait que la perspective est pleinement mathmatique, quelle est base sur des calculs scientifiques, mais, bien entendu, elle
nexerce pas le pouvoir dexactitude stupide de la gomtrie euclidienne
sur limagination [126]. En fait, la perspective offre la possibilit de reprsenter
lespace, mais lespace imprsentable, un espace retard irrparable, la perspective tant un mcanisme dissimulant le prtendu rel [114]. Tout comme les formes
figurales qui ne sont que des ombres, la perspective ne saurait tre intuitione
[114].

14

15

Ce long chapitre reprend le texte de lAbcdaire, troisime volume du Catalogue de la grande exposition Duchamp au Centre dArt et Culture en fvrier 1977 (commissaires: Jean Clair, Pontus
Hulten, Ulf Linde), avec une extension importante vers tant donns.
Jean Clair, Marcel Duchamp et la tradition des perspecteurs, dans lAbcdaire, op.cit., 127-128.
Cet article prsente sans doute la reconstruction la plus dtaille des diverses perspectives dans
le Grand Verre (et dans une moindre mesure, dans Etant donns). Voir galement dans le mme
recueil, Ulf Linde, La perspective dans les neuf moules mliques, 160-165.

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| Prface

Incertitude dramatique que celle de Lyotard dans son effort de capter la perspective dtant donns. La srie de dessins [Ill. 16 et 17] tmoigne du savoir plastique
du docte et habile Lyotard devant la Nue dtant donns. Taxinomiste, catgorialiste
selon le modle de la charnire, difficile pour lui pourtant de neutraliser lil et la
pulsion rtinienne, difficile dchapper lappel euclidien par la culture de ruses
dissimilantes, toute lme de celui qui veut saisir parvient se dcouvrir: gomtre
dvou dans la premire esquisse, calculateur nerveux dans la seconde, encadreur
et focalisateur dans la troisime, soulagement de celui qui finalise en perfection
dans cette vue cavalire quest le quatrime dessin.
Transsexus, un certain mtarcit de la mise nu
Ces dessins, quon le sache, concernent en fait les yeux et la tte des regardeurs
de cet interminable striptease de la Marie, du dshabillage de Rrose Slavy qui
fait croire quelle jouit. Quen est-il de la jouissance de la Marie? Un passage des
Notes trahit chez Duchamp un drle de questionnement : Jouissance = dchance ? [] Le dernier tat de cette marie nu avant la jouissance qui la ferait
dchoir graphiquement, ncessit dexprimer [] cet panouissement (DDS, 64).
Puis Lyotard de commenter : Comment entendre la phrase? Dun moralistede
la rpression sexuelle? Dun libertin intress au pouvoir plutt quaux intensits? Dun de ces philosophes qui conoivent le dsir barr et la jouissance impossible?[] Non, la jouissance [fait] fera dchoir la femme pour autant quelle la dote
dune identit, celle de son sexe; et du mme coup, lhomme du sien [134].
Dissimilation toujours, ruse, cart et dlai, obscnit, dsir et manque. La
vulve lve la vue? ou: la vulve lve la vue?[192], sourit lironique Marcel. On
a souvent dit que toute laffaire Duchamp passe par les femmes [136]. Do ce
dsir didentification, cette fascination pour tant de duplicit fminine? Voici une
des hypothses de Lyotard: Dira-t-on que les femmes sont le principe de la ruse
amcanisante, quelles nont pas dme, quainsi elles chappent au despotique?
Elles seraient la violence, et donc on les relguerait. Leurs corps tant rductibles
mcaniquement, ne les consacrera-t-on pas la reproduction ou la jouissance,
ne sera-ce pas toute leur morale: ou maries ou prostitues ? Mais alors mme,
ajoutera-t-on en toute confiance dialectique, elles ne cessent dtre puissantes en
dissipation, parce quelles sont leurs corps, comme dit Klossowski. Les supplments
dnergie quelles captent, elles ne les assimilent pas. Elles ne fabriquent pas de
lidentit [136].

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| Prface

La mise nu de la marie atteste quoi au juste? Tout nest pas clair puisquil
y a plusieurs mtarcits cette affaire. Le sexe mme est un espace insaisissable,
un principe de dissimilation [134]. Lyotard cite Duchamp dans un entretien
avec Arturo Schwartz, et il commente ainsi : Monsieur Marcel se travestit en
Mlle Rrose et travaille les coupures [il aurait pu dire avec autant de droit, les
charnires ]. Passant outre limportance donne la diffrence des sexes, et donc
leur rconciliation, il va au-del, beyond sex. Le sexe nest pas la quatrime dimension. Il est tridimensionnel aussi bien que quadridimensionnel. On peut certes
exprimer un par-del le sexe en le transfrant dans une quatrime dimension.
Mais la quatrime dimension nest pas le sexe en tant que tel. Le sexe nest quun
attribut, il peut tre transfr dans une quatrime dimension, mais il ne constitue
pas la dfinition ou le statut de la quatrime dimension []. Le sexe est le sexe.
Le sexe, le premier, le deuxime, le troisime, etc., est un produit didentification,
une fiche de la police des dsirs : ce que la costruzione legittima fait des espaces passionnels [136-138]. Quy a-t-il dans un espace quadridimensionnel? Certainement
pas une rconciliation, une totalisation, une dialectique des sexes. Amchanos [136],
il y aura toujours des corps, transsexus, des corps prodigieusement efficaces et
vigoureux, dau-del de la machinerie et de la mcanique, des corps passionnels aux
stratagmes des clairs, peut-tre.

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| Illustrations

Le passage de la Vierge la Marie / The passage from Virgin to Bride

Huile sur toile/oil on canvas, 59.4 54 cm, 1912, New York, Museum of Modern Art

25

| Illustrations

La valve Auvard / The Auvard valve

Catalogue P. Hartmann, 1911

La Marie mise nu / The Bride Stripped Bare

cuivre/copperplate, 50,5 32,5 cm, 1968,
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Graphische Sammlung

26

| Illustrations

Les lectures de Jean-Franois

Les lectures de Jean-Franois

Lyotard / The Readings of

Lyotard / The Readings of

Jean-Franois Lyotard i

Jean-Franois Lyotard ii

Page manuscrite/manuscript page, 1974,

Page manuscrite/manuscript page, 1974,

Bibliothque Littraire Jacques Doucet, Paris

Bibliothque Littraire Jacques Doucet, Paris

Biographie de Marcel Duchamp /

Biography of Marcel Duchamp
Page manuscrite/manuscript page, 1974,
Bibliothque Littraire Jacques Doucet, Paris

27

| Illustrations

Plan gnral du livre /

General Table of Contents of the Book

Page manuscrite/manuscript page,
1974-1977, Bibliothque Littraire
Jacques Doucet, Paris

Variante du plan gnral /

Variant of the General Table
of Contents
Page manuscrite/manuscript page,
1974-1977, Bibliothque Littraire
Jacques Doucet, Paris

Recherche pour un titre /

Page manuscrite/manuscript page, 1977,

Searching for a Title

Bibliothque Littraire Jacques Doucet, Paris

28

| Illustrations

10

Objet-Dard / Dart-Object

Pltre galvanis/galvanized plaster, 7.5 2.1 6 cm, 1951, France, collection Alexina Duchamp

11

Feuille de vigne femelle / Female Fig Leaf

Pltre galvanis/galvanized plaster, 9 14 12.5 cm, 1950, New York, collection Jasper Johns

29

| Illustrations

12

Paysage fautif / Wayward Landscape

13

Original sans titre pour bote dans

Fluide sminal sur astralon/seminal fluid on astralon,

une valise pour Matta / Untitled

21 17 cm, 1946, Toyama, The Museum of Modern Art

Original for Mattas Box in a Valise

Tte, poils axillaires et pubiens colls
sur papier/head, axillary and pubic hair taped
to paper, 19 15 cm, 1946, New York,
collection prive/private collection

30

| Illustrations

14

La langue dans la joue /

15

Marcel Duchamp moul vif /

With my Tongue in my Cheek

Marcel Duchamp Cast Alive

Pltre sur crayon et papier/

plaster on pencil and paper,
25 15 5.1 cm, 1959, Paris,
Muse national dart moderne

Moulage en bronze et jeu dchecs/

bronze cast and chess board,
54.6 42.5 23.5 cm, 1967, New York,
ditions Les Matres

31

| Illustrations

16

Vue cavalire dtant donns / Approximate View of Given

Page manuscrite/manuscript page, 1976, Bibliothque Littraire Jacques Doucet, Paris

17

Premire esquisse dtant donns /

First Sketch of Given
Page manuscrite/manuscript page,
1976, Bibliothque Littraire Jacques Doucet, Paris

32

Preface
Herman Parret

The prestige of the erotic

No one doubts that Marcel Duchamp is the iconoclast and the conjurer of modernist
values, the elucidator of contemporary art. The practice of the readymade has problematised the very notion of the work of art as well as the function of the artist, and we have
not yet recovered from this hard subversive blow that put an end to so many modernist certitudes.1 From a more constructive perspective, Duchamp has been glorified as the
founder of conceptual art, and it is the readymade that turned art into an apology for the
concept. Urinal, bottle rack, coat rack, shovel, bicycle wheel, so many concept-objects that
our imaginary at the beginning of this millennium will never be able to efface. However,
the Duchampian arsenal abounds above all with concept-bodies, and it is the body that
Duchamp conceptualises from 1909 onwards, the year when he impressionistically and
tenderly paints the portrait of his sister Yvonne. Two years later he analyses in a cubist
manner the bodily movement of the naked woman that descends the stairs, permanently
abandoning painting around 1914 relatively subversive theoretico-practical gesture
to take up the iconology of the co-corporeity of the bachelors and the bride from the Large
Glass [Ill. i] during the years in New York, culminating, after having lived without any
artistic recognition for several decades, in the enigmatic hypostasis of a radical concept of
the body, this womans body with amputated limbs whose mass of flesh is built around a
shaven and abyssal vulva: Given, 1 The Waterfall 2 The Illuminating Gas [Ill. ii].
Jean-Franois Lyotards Duchamps TRANS/formers, written between 1974 and 1977 in
the middle of the time of Duchamps rediscovery in France, concerns only these two
major works that glorify the body in its topological conceptuality. The body according
to Duchamp allows no predication by any aesthetic category the body is neither beautiful, nor sublime, nor gracious, nor even disgusting. No interiority is disclosed there,
no phenomenology will ever discover there any significance. It is in fact a question of
the essential body, the body marked by sex and death, by eros and thanatos and nothing
else. When Cabanne asks Duchamp about the role of eroticism in his work, he answers:
1

In the first part of this introduction I take over the main ideas developed in my article Le corps selon
Duchamp published in Prote. Thories et pratiques smiotiques, vol. 287, no. 3, 2000, 89-100.

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| Preface

Huge. Visible or underlying, everywhere, and Duchamp tells Jouffroy that sex
is the only thing that he really takes seriously. This prestige of the erotic clearly
excited Lyotard [115]. However, the puns and that teeming mass of abundantly
fabulous, hardly interpretable notes on the Green Box from 1934 and the White Box
from 1966 introduce a certain distance towards this essential seriousness through
their tone of humour, of irony (Lyotard: ironism of affirmation [143]), even of
joy. These notes, which were to be published in 1975,2 have been duly studied,
interpreted and quoted by Lyotard in the book that you hold in your hands. One
knows, moreover, that for Duchamp, sex and death do not entail anything tragic
on the contrary, Eros, thats life and concerning sex and death the sweet smile
of Marcel notifies us that there is no solution since there is no problem. It goes
without saying that the Duchampian iconology of bodies is not at all charming: it
is one of androgynous bodies Rrose Slavy mechanical bodies made entirely of
tubes and trunks, fragmented bodies, incapable of sex and death, bodies that slide
into deformity, prosthetic bodies. It is this body, of which Duchamp offers us the
concept, this essential body that the Lyotardian topology reconstructs.
From 1912, Duchamp experiences the phantasm of the great machine of preci-

sion. First the Virgin [Ill. 1], preliminary sketch of the Large Glass [Ill. i]. It does
not represent so much the eroticism of nudity, like Nude Descending a Staircase,
but rather already connotes, by its own title, an explicitly sexual universe. The
Artificial Woman settles in, in her femininity, in her artificiality. Lgers tubism
is influential. Biological, gynaecological, the womans body becomes an amalgam of mechanical elements and abstract surfaces, moving towards the right
side, hence in transition. Transition, like the anatomical passage of a virgin to
becoming a bride, the initiatory, mystical transition to accomplished femininity. The figuration of the Bride in the Glass is thus reached, a less baroque Bride,
more schematic, more compact than the Virgin who was only in transition. The
libidinal and voyeuristic male gaze is invited to dissect with a diagrammatical precision the cadeveric machine of the Woman, and he discovers there her intimate
secrets, visceral organs connected by tubes, trunks and cylinders. This alchemical
engine, archetype of Femininity, exists only through objectification in the male
gaze. The Bride of the Glass, culmination through schematization, through purification, nothing but essential organs for essential functioning, that is to love in
2

Under the title Duchamp du signe [DDS], Paris, Flammarion (Coll. Champs), 1975 [1994]. Another
collection of Notes was published in 1980 in the same collection, which Lyotard obviously could
not have known at the moment of writing Duchamps TRANS/formers.

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| Preface

order to die. The work offers us the story of this journey, groping along the arteries of this lovemaking machine. Gush of gaseous liquids, transported, retarded,
accelerated by the Water Mill, by the Chocolate Grinder, scattered by the Great
Scissors, brought together by the Chimney ventilator. What male impotence in
the passage to the female domain of the Bride! The arrow loaded by the gaslights
journey runs up against the Occular Witness, and only the Kodak Lens remains to
contemplate the Brides desire. Like the Bachelors, the Bride too is in full bloom. Her
complex mechanics are firmly balanced by the Wasp and the Weathercock below
and she produces the Milky Way out of love, like the milk from a mothers breast.
Flesh, nebulous, desirous, generous, language of the Bride that shall never be
heard, appeal that the gaslight touch and provoke the vaporizing orgasm, explode
in the discovery of the fourth dimension. We shall see how Lyotard profoundly
exploits this Duchampian thesis of the fourth dimension, this superior space
transcending the illusory banality of sensorial perception, a space where bodies
bloom. Duchamp often refers with delight to his Large Glass as this great junk, an
erotico-mechanical metaphor, an iconography without shame of love, an a-sentimental speculation on the desired but unsuccessful operation of deflowering. Let
us examine for a moment the figuration of the Artificial Woman. Her main organ
is the hanged Female attached below by the Wasp or Sex-Cylinder and by the
Weathercock. Laid down, naked stripped by the bachelors insistent gazes the
Bride is a small autonomous engine whose needs are fueled by its own fragrance
of love, essence of love, by the spark of its magneto-desire. These fragrant sparks
are generated inside the Wasp and transported in the Hanged Female, only faintly
attached, going round and round under the pressure of loves essence.
The semantic depositary of this iconographic programme is vast and open,
and many an interpretant can be constructed, each completely compatible with
the others. Phenomenologically, the Bride is not attractive but rather absurd. She
remains a stranger, a hieroglyph to be deciphered. Is she a fossil, the skeleton of
a bird? Human form, all the same, since the figure is suspended with a ring a
nuptial ring, one could wonder on a hook. Insect excellent metaphor of the
sexual drives inexorability puppet, marionette, hung while still alive since she
is inhaled by the gassy breath generated by her cylinder-sex, which she will transmit in delightful pulsations to the Milky Way. Impersonal and pale beauty of an
authoritarian lunar goddess, of the kind of Salammb, Herodias, Salom, of the
kind of Mallarms swan from The Virgin, Vivid and Beautiful Today, dignified and
lucid, aware that her evaporating desire hides her frigidity poorly.

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Structurally, the domain of the Bride is more confused, more diffuse than that
of the bachelors. More oblique lines, more curves, the domain of the Bride seems
more biological than geometrical, certainly more organic than mechanical. Andr
Breton notes it too, in Lighthouse of the Bride: The foundation of the Bride is a motor.
But before being a motor that transmits its timid-force, she is this very timidforce. This timid-force is a kind of a toy car, essence of love which, distributed to
quite feeble cylinders, within the reach of the sparks of her continuous life, aids in
the blossoming of this virgin arrived at the end of her desire.3 Consequently, the
timid-force is vital and biological before transposing itself into the mechanical. The
stripping of the Bride bares everything, all the way to the internal body, disclosing
to us the visceral contractions of organs. The Green Box confirms Duchamps interest in machines, steam machines, fermentation machines, electrical machines,
optical machines as well. In fact, steam, fermentation, electrical sparks, optical
projection all guide, in the Large Glass, the Journey of the Illuminating Gas. However,
Duchamp is just as fascinated with anatomical dissection and the radiography of
internal organs he claims that the radiography of two bodies during copulation
provides an instantaneous photo of the fourth dimension...
Duchamp often leafed through catalogues of medical instruments, particularly
gynaecological instruments, and it is certain that he meditated on the Auvard valve
as it was presented in the Hartmann catalogue of 1911,4 an instrument that, once
inserted into the uterus, achieves the highest degree of proximity with the essential [Ill. 2]. Reconciliation, therefore, of the mechanical and the biological, a meto-

nymical, dizzying slide of the content towards the container. Let us not suppress,
in this instant, this unnamable discovery. The Hanged Female is an Auvard valve,
and the Duchampian figuration of the Artificial Woman is thus the interface of the
biological container and the mechanical content, interface of the uterus moulding the Auvard valve. The drawing that Duchamp made in February 1968, a few
months before his death, shows us his last Bride [Ill. 3], wrapped in her fantas-

matic halo, this Hanged Female, this time entirely of flesh. Figurative continuity
from the Auvard valve to the Hanged Female, from the Hanged Female to the last
Bride that he takes with him into death, the coherence is rather unbearable...

In Robert Lebel, Sur Marcel Duchamp. Avec des textes de Andr Breton et de H.P. Roche, Paris, Trianon
Press, 1959. Bretons text, Phare de la Mare, is on page 88-94; the quote is from page 93. [Unless otherwise indicated, all translations from the French are our own.]
I owe this information to Juan Antonio Ramirez, Duchamp: Love and Death, Even, London: Reaktion Books, 1998, 139. Ramirezs book poses the essential questions with regard to Duchamp.

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The story of the Journey of the Illuminating Gas stages a fantastic natural tragedy, yet a tragedy that ought to move us to joy, not to tears. Duchamp, as Nietzsche
wanted it, says YES to life. EpanOUIssement, blOUIssement, jOUIssance, at the heart
of these three typically Duchampian words there is the last word: OUI [YES].5
Neither pessimistic nor optimistic, the staging of the Large Glass confronts us with
the rite of love, the need of the Bachelors and the Bride to bloom, the need of an
abundant discharge of semen, the need of a generous lactification, semen and
milk, liquids sacrificed in the rite of love, in vain, perhaps, but not really, useful all
the same when it is necessary to learn how to die every day of ones life.
Needless to say, the Duchampian body owes nothing to the classical aesthetic
canon, nor is it the body of modern life, as in Manet. This body has nothing
existential. It is not a lived body but rather the body dissected under the eye of
the surgeon, the gynaecologist, the body that is always under the eye of the eyewitnesses in the Large Glass; but also that of the voyeur piercing with his libidinal gaze the two tiny holes of the heavy gate that yields the woman of Given [Ill.
ii], who shows herself as in a peepshow, forever untouchable. The eroticism in
Duchamp is insistent, cerebral, obsessional. Given is completely organised around
the gaping, shaven, smooth-surfaced sex of a woman lying down as though after
orgasm. Lyotard suggests that the right half of the body is male, the left female,
the viewer being subjected to the defiant Duchampian spirit, which loves to display androgynous duplicity [53]. Furthermore, it is true that Given makes a mockery of Courbets The Origin of the World and this dirty blond wig that covers the
belly of the woman exposed in this painting. Compared to The Origin of the World,
Given surely adds three-dimensional depth and offers an increase of visibility: the
light is excessively intense and the flesh too coarse-grained. Jean Clair offers the
following description: In Given, [the body] appears as an envelope without interior, an empty carcass, a hollow mould, a shell without flesh, a film, an illusion.6
A single hand is visible: it brandishes an incandescent and phallic Bec Auer,7 the

6
7

This brilliant remark is made by Jean Suquet, Marcel Duchamp ou lblouissement de lclaboussure,
Paris: LHarmattan, 1998, 77. [Translators note: the figural value of these words that include the
French yes (oui) has no analogue in English. Literally, they mean blooming, blossoming,
or flowering; bedazzlement, and joy, pleasure, or enjoyment. Jouissance can here to
be taken in a psychoanalytic register.]
Jean Clair, Sexe et topologie in Marcel Duchamp, labcdaire, Paris, Centre National dArt et de
Culture Georges Pompidou, 1977, 55.
Translators note: the Bec Auer (gas lamp) is Duchamps term for the lamp that the woman
of Given holds. Various segments of Duchamps work are turned into proper names through
capitalization, and are often left untranslated.

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sole male presence, this illuminating gas, fecund but kept away from the sex, nonencounter as in the time of the Large Glass, lamp still held in order to completely
illuminate the undeniable punctum.8
The passage of Jean Clair
Lyotards interest in the two masterpieces of Marcel Duchamp clearly concerns
neither the represented story nor the idiosyncratic iconography of the images.
Rather, Lyotard develops a specifically deconstructionist heuristic of topological justice [69]. This topological justice makes Duchamp a model of political
thought [57]. It goes without saying that the making of that model distances itself
then from Plato and equally from Kant, while moving towards Ovid and Apuleius
and, quite obviously, the later Nietzsche [207]. The locus of this position may seem
uncertain, inconsistent and contingent, revealing itself to the artist and the philosopher-commentator in a genre of discourse, a style that loves its contingency,
that throws together its fragments of doctrine, that hardly masks its theoretical
apathy [143]. It is futile to interpret, pronounces Duchamp and Lyotard with him,
since the work is a space of dissimilating metamorphoses [97]; it is uncommentable, though there is nothing mystical in it, and inconsistent without being insignificant it is the incommensurable that lives on in the style of the artist and his
commentator [55]. Let us cultivate the non-sense like a treasure. Let us speak of
Duchamp as a machine-like phrase maker [57] and to speak mechanically of
Duchamp is always without any assignable reference [65]. Long live inexact
precision [111].
What about the political topology that Lyotard proposes to think in his
book on Duchamp? In Incongruences, the first section of the book, it is surprising
to see that Duchamps work is superimposed onto a political structure of society,
the place of the worker behind the machine [57-63]. Yet it quickly becomes clear
that this political topology concerns another war, the one that Duchamp wages
against the eye, against retinal stupidity [125], and Lyotard quotes many a sentence
from the notes in Duchamp du signe in favour of a certain inopticity (DDS, 118):
one has to steer clear of all visual experience (DDS, 110). Duchamp preaches that
perception is a leisurely stroll, or even a tactile perception (DDS, 125): no overall
8

Jean-Franois Lyotard gives the following description of the punctum: The vulva that you cant
fail to notice its all you see is denuded of all hair (whereas the armpits are hairy this isnt
a child) ; the thighs are spread apart; the erect large labia are open. They let us see not only the
tumescent small labia but also the gaping orifice of the vagina and even the swollen vestibulary
bulbs around the lower commissure. The vulva looks up? Or, the vulva-full looks up? [193]

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view, but an eye without memory [105]. It is true and dangerous that the eye needs to
believe, to unify, to be intelligent. That is why, Lyotard points out, Duchamp rails
at retinal painting, rails against the phenomenological horizon: as stupid as
a painter. You have to blind the eye that thinks it sees something; you have to
make a painting of blindness that plunges the sufficiency of the eye into rout [107].
This potent discourse against oculocentrism also introduces a nice distinction
between the appearance of an object and its apparition. Here are Duchamps determinations: the first is the totality of usual sensorial data enabling one to have
an ordinary perception of the object (DDS, 120), while the second is the (formal)
mould of the first. And Lyotard is quite happy to be able to show that it is very
much a question of two different spaces. That which the viewer sees on the Glass is
the object that the eye composes, the appearances, the images that act on the retina.
Opposed to the appearances and their furtive exhibitionist machination are the
apparitions, these formal matrices, and their asceticism turned against visual habits and in the face of that severe machinesque pedagogy [189].
This political topology is obviously characteristic of Lyotardian thought, but
this thought knew to rely on some excellent intuitions of Jean Clair in these
years when Duchampism triumphed in France. In 1975 Jean Clair publishes his
Marcel Duchamp ou le grand fictif. Essai de mythanalyse du grand verre,9 where he aims
at a Duchamp shining and cold as a dagger.10 One has to remember that Jean
Clair was the curator of the major Duchamp exhibition of 1977 at the National
Museum of Modern Art (Georges Pompidou National Centre of Art and Culture,
Paris). Lyotard appreciates Jean Clairs book and dedicates a laudatory review to
it entitled Marcel Duchamp or the Great Sophist.11 Lyotard, just like Clair, notes that
Duchamp chooses the side of Kafka, Jarry, Nietzsche: the sophists against the
philosophers, the dissimulators against the assimilators, the artists against the
reasoners, celibate machines against industrial mechanics [85]. Duchamp, the
anti-platonic, the anti-Euclidean, the anti-hermeneutic, turns against the centre
and the last instance, against exclusive Truth, against history and God. He is for
the mechanics of multiplicities and intensities, he, the constructor and apologist
of machines of seduction. With the machine, this cunning artifice, nature and
measure are done with it is this that this anti-romantic and ironic dandy teaches
9
10
11

Paris, Galil, 1975.

Ibid., 35.
LArt Vivant, March/ April 1975, 34-35.

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us with his concept-bodies. But Husserl and Alberti also are dethroned in favour
of Gaston de Pawlowski, Poincar, Dedekind and Riemann: one has to travel now
on the plenitude of surfaces, be moved by the excess of passions, by the excess of
drives. Journey to the Land of the Fourth Dimension12 is the title of a book by Pawlowski
that Duchamp often had in his hands [165]. Lyotard refers to the Duchamp of
Jean Clair, the one of this geometry in which there is no ultimate space, no natural place, and it is thus that the space of the Large Glass should be deciphered,
as a space in n-dimensions of which Jean Clair establishes a certain topology in his
book. The rather hermeneutical interpretations of Duchamp were common: esoteric (Breton), alchemical (Sanouillet, Lebel, Pontus Hulten, Linde), Freudian and
Jungian (Schwarz), cabalistic (Burnham), shamelessly religious (Calvesi), mildly
symbolic (Paz). Jean Clair, by contrast, approaches the Large Glass as the staging of
a sophisticated machinery of spaces in n-dimensions, and Jean-Franois Lyotard
will apply this same topological method to Given in his article Inventory of the Last
Nude, his contribution to the Abcdaire, the third volume of the publication on the
occasion of the major 1977 exhibition (the extended version of this article forms
the chapter Hinges in the present volume). Moreover, Lyotard follows a very plausible architectural intuition: that the two great works, the Large Glass and Given,
would be reciprocal mirroric returns...13 This mirroric operation that puts in place the
most essential hinge, that of the Glass and of Given, is not simply specular and replicative. The mirroric operation cannot be trusted because it is sly; it dissimulates
without finality, incongruity of similarities, a geometry that does not at all permit
any decision on a duplicity of identity [96-98]. And Lyotard insists that the specular
results from an aesthetics and a politics of representation, from a communicative

12
13

Published in 1912. A new edition appeared in 1962 from Denol (collection Prsences du futur).
So we will ask the question: are the Large Glass and Given, one to the other, in a perfect reciprocity, not mirroric returns? If it were possible, within a quadri-dimensional expanse, to fold the Glass
onto Given, to make one coincide with the other, then the Bride would finally appear as she is,
identified, placed in this state where interior and exterior, outside and inside, are one and the
same thing. (Sex and Topology [Eroticism], in Abcdaire, op. cit., see note 5, 58). And Lyotard comments in Duchamps TRANS/formers as follows: The relation between the Large Glass and the last
work, Given, is itself a projection or a group of projections, which passes all the elements of the
Glass into those of the last Nude. Each element undergoes a singular transformation. We ought
to be able to find the transforming apparatus, which must be very complex. I will briefly say
that you pass from an ascetic and critical plastic formulation, that of the Glass, to a popular, pornographic, pagan formulation, that of Given, but both of them are formulations of one and the
same object [...] according to two incongruent but symmetrical temporalities in the two great
works: the time of the Large Glass is that of a stripping naked not yet done; the time of Given is that
of a stripping naked already done. The Glass is the delay of the nude; Given is its advance. [75]

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logic of structures and signs [133]. This is why the signitive specular is fully semiotic, whereas the mirroric is topological. This is a return to the tendency of surpassing the semiotic in the Lyotardian topology.
If the passage of Jean Clair was essential to the constitution of Lyotards thinking on Duchamp [66], an entire important range of literature on Duchamp was
exhaustively studied in the course of writing Duchamps TRANS/formers. A manuscript note from June 1976 [Ill. 4/5] enumerates seven volumes that Lyotard
intended to read in the preparation of his text. There were Duchamps Writings,
which were about to be published under the title Duchamp du signe14 (1975, under
point 3), another edition of Duchamps texts in English (translated by Cleve Gray,
1967, under point 4), then the great classics: the Jean Clair already presented (1975,
under point 5), Jean Suquet (1974, under point 6), Pierre Cabannes interviews
with Duchamp (1967, under point 1) and also Arturo Schwarzs Complete Works of
Marcel Duchamp (1969), a reference work including the most complete inventory of
Duchamps works (under point 2). It is an impressive abundance of research testifying to the seriousness of Lyotards scholarship. Other preparatory documents,
like Duchamps biography [Ill. 6], the plan of Hinges [Ill. 7], the overall detailed
plan [Ill. 8], and the choice of the title [Ill. 9], prove this even more.
The precision of the machine
The political topology presupposes a concept-machinal body. For Duchamp, the
organic body is actually a machine whose mechanism is a trap set for the forces of
nature [77]. And Lyotard notices how Duchamp loves machines without taste or
feeling, anonymous machines. The question of the author and of authority is
abolished. Long live the machinations of engineering. The Duchampian machines
are singular and spontaneous inventions [101] (consequently, not industrial); they
have a faculty of cunning [79-81], they are dissimulative, they escape power and
technique [97-99]. Funny machines, these sophistic machines [83], since they are
a battery of metamorphosis [75] meant to redistribute energy, to multiply the
set-ups. Exploiting the sophistical remarks of Gaston de Pawlowski, Duchamp
strives for his machines to achieve a geometry in n-dimensions that will dictate
the staging of the Large Glass and Given. This topological geometry comprehensively
orients the Lyotardian commentary on Duchampism. A point of view that is an
alternative to this topologisation yet complementary to it nevertheless prevails in
14

Translated as The Writings of Marcel Duchamp, ed. Michel Sanouillet and Elmer Peterson, trans.
Elmer Peterson, New York, 1989.

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numerous formal analyses of Duchamps two masterpieces: rather semiotic and

Peircian in orientation, it concerns a qualification with the help of the notion of
indexicality. I shall say a few words about it before proceeding to the topological
categories in Duchamps TRANS/formers.
Indexes, imprints, moulds
One can rightly argue (it is more or less the position of George Didi-Huberman)
that Marcel Duchamps art, that is, the semio-eroticism of Rrose Slavy, is indexical. No object from the Duchampian galaxy is either symbolic or iconic. Duchamp
glorifies the linking of infra-mince differences, the metonymisation of concepts,
the contiguity of matter. All creative dynamism is placed under the sign of the
imprint, of the trace, of the mould. Mistrust of allegory, of symbolism. The signifier does not signify through symbolic convention like serious language and art
with a message or expressive art. It rather does so through the chance of metonymic associations. Moreover, this uninterrupted series of Duchampian puns signifies in this way. Art does not narrate anything, it does not refer to anything, it
syntagmatises the convex and the concave, the solid and the empty, the penis and
the vulva according to the indexical geometry of the infra-mince. As a result, there
is nothing symbolic, no reference to a signified via an arbitrary signifier. Neither is
there anything iconic, since no ontology of referents calls upon mimesis. Art is the
imprint of life: if there is distance between art and life, it can only be infra-mince.
As Dard-Object15 [Ill. 10] is the index of the Female Fig Leaf [Ill. 11]. The machines
fragments of essential flesh reciprocally indexicalise each other.
A brief commentary on and a few examples of Duchampian strategies of indexicalisation: the cut and the prosthesis. The cut is surely the most dramatic strategy of
indexicalisation.16 Twenty of the Boxes in a Suitcase from 1946 contain the Faulty
Landscape [Ill. 12] and another eight this constellation without title of cut hair [Ill. 13].

15
16

Translators note: the French Objet-dard is a typical Duchampian pun, based on the noun objet dart (object of art or art object). The French word dard (dart) is slang for penis.
Lyotard mentions how Poincar takes over from Dedekind the syntagm theory of cuts [165]:
In order to divide space, you need cuts that are called surfaces; in order to divide surfaces, you
need cuts that are called lines; in order to divide lines, you need cuts that are called points. Duchamp comments: The razor blades that cut well and the razor blades that no longer cut. The
former have cutting in reserve. Use this cutting or cuttage (DDS, 47) [165-167]. As a result,
the cut is not absent from the Duchampian arsenal, but it is not indexical: it does not indicate the
contiguity of two material domains (for Duchamp they would be two domains of appearance and
not domains of apparition) but rather the construction of a formal limit in this sense the cut
for Duchamp is rather close to the hinge.

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Literally a cut: the hair of the head, the armpit hair and the pubic hair are glued
on a plastic rectangle. This suggestive composition serves as an index of the feminine body. Faulty Landscape is a rectangle of black cloth partially discoloured by the
dried remains of sperm. This strange landscape has taken on beautiful oxidised
colours, and it does not represent a fault more serious than that of masturbation
in the erotic game. The cutting of hair, ejaculation, another strategy of indexicalisation pointing towards the essential body. The strategy of indexicalisation culminates in the prosthesis, since here the infra-mince rule maximises the indexical
geometry. With my tongue in my cheek (1959) [Ill. 14] is an idiomatic expression in
English meaning that one speaks without the intention of really being serious. The
humour, or even the irony, cannot mask the agonistic status of this self-portrait.
In fact, the self-portrait of a seventy-two year old man, bas-relief made of plaster
on paper with a pencil drawing, set on wood. Again, plaster cast of the prosthesis,
like the plaster of the Female Fig Leaf and of the Dard-Object. Duchamp literally puts
the tongue into the cheek and thus blows it up. The plaster is a mould that fills up
the old mans hollow cheek and gives him an exaggerated relief. It has to do with
a funerary mask, but the open eye which could not have been plastered still
signals life, although the gaze is fossilized. The appearance is mortuary, equally
in the absence of colour, a march towards death of someone still living [Ill. 15].
The plaster prosthesis creates a double significance. On the one hand, it fills a lack,
the absence of a cheek, the absence of a living body. But on the other, through its
whiteness it seems to eat life, in progressing like a tentacle until the entire head
is plastered, until the funerary mask is complete. The prosthesis preserves the illusion of life across the image of death. As a result, the threshold of life before death
is depicted here, the imprint of death in life, the inexorable mould of life by death.
The life-death gap is infra-mince.
Partitions, hinges, perspectives
What indexes, imprints, casts are to semiotics, partitions, hinges, perspectives are to
topology. The omnipresence of these formal matrices in the Lyotardian commentary is absolute. The n-dimensional logic of the partition exceeds its bi- or tridimensional geometry where it appears as the slice of a plane, as a line [93], but
as matrix of the fourth dimension it is not visible to the eye: it is by nature dissimilating [81], duplicitous, sophistical [141]. The detailed explication of the hinge

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logic [141] covers more than half of the book that you hold in your hands.17 It is
Duchamp himself who introduces the term in his Notes: make a hinge picture
(DDS, 42); hinge: group of operations acting through ironic causality (DDS, 46).
There are hinges for any range and for any expanse. The most comprehensive is
that of the overlap (the commensurability) of the two major works (take a work apart
to put it back together as/ inside the other). The hinge between the two works is
thus a paradoxical operator of incongruence (opposed to the congruence of other
types of relations governed by logical causality, like implication) [147]. Amongst
the dozens of other hinges, more local ones, at the level of micro-narratives
[169], there is still one crucial hinge, in the Glass, notably the transversals separating the two regions, male and female, another relation of incongruence or the mirroric relation that has already been evoked [93].
However, it is the perspective(s) or the projection of dimensions [71-73] rather, the
dispectives, as Lyotard suggests [127-129] that allows for the plastic topologization of Duchamps two works. Jean Clair indicated very well the importance of the
Duchampian reflection on perspective, an anthropological importance in a way.
This intellectual speculation of Duchamp would aim at perspective as indefinite
revival of desire, as promulgation of an absence, the perspective that represents
an object to vision only to deprive vision of it all the more. For this sorrow, to
break the ice in an amorous game where the envisaged spectacle is desire,18 is
surely the most sensible commentary on our two works. Duchamp, and Lyotard
after him, insists that perspective is fully mathematical, that it is based on scientific calculations, but of course, it does not exercise the power of stupid exactitude of Euclidean geometry on imagination [127]. In fact, perspective offers the
possibility of representing space, but unpresentable space, a delayed irreparable
space, perspective being a mechanism dissimulating the alleged real [115]. Just like
the figural forms that are mere shadows, perspective cannot be intuited [115].
A dramatic uncertainty, like that of Lyotard in his effort to capture the perspective in Given. The series of drawings [Ill. 16 and 17] testifies to the plastic knowledge of the learned and proficient Lyotard in front of Givens Nude. Taxonomist,
17

18

This long chapter takes up again the text of the Abcdaire, the third volume of the catalogue of
the major Duchamp exhibition at the Centre for Art and Culture, February 1977 (curators: Jean
Clair, Pontus Hulten, Ulf Linde), with an important expansion around Given.
Jean Clair, Marcel Duchamp et la tradition des perspecteurs, in Abcdaire, op. cit., 127-128. This
article probably presents the most detailed reconstruction of the diverse perspectives in the
Large Glass (and to a lesser degree, in Given). See also in the same collection, Ulf Linde, La perspective dans les neuf moules mliques, 160-165.

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categorialist according to the model of the hinge, it is nonetheless difficult for him
to neutralize the eye and the retinal drive, it is difficult to escape the Euclidean
appeal through the culture of concealing stratagems. The entire soul of the one
that wants to grasp reaches self-discovery: devoted geometer in the first sketch,
nervous calculator in the second, framer and focalizer in the third, relief of the one
who finishes perfectly in this cavalier view that is the fourth drawing.
Transsexus, a certain meta-narrative of stripping
These drawings, let it be known, pertain in fact to the eyes and the head of the
viewers of this interminable striptease of the Bride, the stripping of Rrose Slavy,
who pretends that she is reaching orgasm. What about the pleasure of the Bride?
A passage from the Notes betrays in Duchamp an amusing questioning: Pleasure
= decline? The last state of this nude Bride prior to the pleasure which [brings about
her fall, scratched out] would graphically bring about her fall, necessity to convey [...]
this blossoming (DDS, 64). And Lyotard comments: How are we to understand
this sentence? As that of a moralist of sexual repression? Of a libertine interested
in power rather than in intensities? Of one of those philosophers who conceive
desire as barred and bliss impossible? [...] No, bliss [makes] would make will make
the woman fall inasmuch as she endows it with an identity, that of her sex; and
thereby endows the man with his [135].
Always dissimulation, ruse, distance and delay, obscenity, desire and lack. The
vulva looks up? Or, the vulva-full looks up? [193], Marcel smiles ironically. It has
been said enough that The whole Duchamp affair goes via women [137]. Whence
this desire of identification, this fascination with so much feminine duplicity?
Here is a hypothesis from Lyotard: Shall we say that women are the principle of
the a-mechanizing cunning, that they have no soul, and thus they escape the despotic? They would be violence, and so they would be relegated. Their bodies being
mechanically reducible, wont they be devoted to reproduction or to pleasure,
wont that be their whole morality: either married or prostituted? But even then,
shall we add in full dialectical confidence, they do not cease to be powerful in dissipation, because they are their bodies, as Klossowski says. The supplements of energy
they capture are not assimilated by them. They do not fabricate identity [137].
What does the stripping of the bride prove, exactly? Since there are several metanarratives involved in this affair, not everything is clear. Sex itself is an imperceptible space, a principle of dissimulation [135]. Lyotard cites Duchamp in an
interview with Arturo Schwartz, and he comments as follows: Monsieur Marcel

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transvests himself as Mademoiselle Rrose and works the cuts. Going beyond the
importance given to the difference of the sexes, and hence to their reconciliation, he
goes beyond, beyond sex. Sex is not the fourth dimension. It is tridimensional as
much as quadri-dimensional. One can of course express a beyond of sex by transferring it into the fourth dimension. But the fourth dimension is not sex as such.
Sex is merely an attribute: it can be transferred to a fourth dimension, but it does
not constitute the definition or the status of the fourth dimension []. Sex is sex.
Sex, the first, the second, the third, etc., is a product of identification, a file card of
the desire-police: it is what the costruzione legittima makes of the spaces of passion
[137-139]. What is contained in a quadri-dimensional space? Surely not a reconciliation, a totalisation, a dialectic of sexes. Amchanos [137], there will always be bodies, transsexus, prodigiously effective and vigorous bodies, a beyond machinery and
mechanics, passionate bodies with stratagems of flashes, perhaps.
Translated by Vlad Ionescu and Peter W. Milne

Jean-Franois Lyotard

Les Transformateurs Duchamp

Je pensais un livre,
mais je naimais pas cette ide.
Marcel Duchamp ( J. J. Sweeney)

Jean-Franois Lyotard

Duchamps TRANS/formers

I was thinking of a book,

But I didnt like that idea.
Marcel Duchamp (to J.J. Sweeney)

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Incongruences
Dclaration
Je ne dis pas que tout ce qui va suivre est faux ni que cest vrai ni non
plus que ce nest ni faux, ni vrai, ni vrai-et-faux, ni un peu faux et un
peu vrai. Mais se pourrait-il que M. Duchamp ait cherch et obtenu,
ou Mlle Slavy ait cherch et obtenu, en matire despace et de temps
et en matire de matire et de forme, la contrarit ? Vous prfrez dire
lincommensurabilit ?
Plainte
Je proteste quil ny a pas tre plus sentencieux que ne lest M. Marcel.
Il atteint le comble du sentencieux, chacune de ses phrases nigmatiques
fait sentence, chacun de ses produits bizarres mouche. Telle est sa duret.
La duret de qui ? La duret de la phrase, du produit de M. Marcel ? ou
celle de M. Marcel ? Il nous a eus avec sa phrase dure et sentencieuse. Il
nous a asphyxis. On ne peut plus rien dire. Mais voir ? Voir pas davantage. Le Verre, rien voir, transparent. tant donns, rien quune vulve
voir, et pour cette raison rien quun con pour voir.
Amendement
Mais non, cest le contraire. Sa duret ne vient pas du sentencieux de ses
phrases et produits, mais de leur obscurit. Ou mme de lobscurit de
leur destination. Vous savez o a va, tout a ? Quoi, a ? Vous savez
o mnent ces phrases ? Mener, aller ? Vous savez quelle finalit est
la leur, quelle fin elles visent ? Eh bien part une, je nen vois pas : nous
faire parler. Nous faire nous questionner les uns les autres, ou chacun
lui-mme, son sujet. Il nous conduit le commenter. Sa phrase obscurissime appelle nos phrases commenter sentencieusement sa phrase.
Donc prolifration des sentences phraseuses, quel mal ? Aucun mal,
aucun bien, et aucun ni lun ni lautre. En se soustrayant, par leur obscurit, ses phrases attirent les ntres venir sadditionner. Nous sommes
ainsi contraints dtre beaucoup plus phraseurs que M. Marcel. Et quant
voir, cest pareil. Vous mettez vos yeux dans les trous de la porte espagnole, vous voyez une vulve claire en plein par une spotlight de 150
watts, sans poil, et vous croyez voir tout ce que vous voulez voir. Que
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Incongruences
Declaration
I dont say that what follows is all false, nor that its all true, nor that its neither false nor true nor both-true-and-false, nor a bit false and a bit true. But
could it be that Monsieur Duchamp sought and obtained, or that Mlle Slavy
sought and obtained, contrariety in the matter of space and time and in the
matter of matter and form? You prefer to say incommensurability?
Complaint
I protest that there is no being more sententious than M. Marcel. He reaches
the height of sententiousness, each of his enigmatic sentences lays down
a sententia in each of his strange little jottings. Such is his hardness. Whose
hardness? The hardness of Monsieur Marcels sentence or product? Or
Monsieur Marcels own hardness? Hes tricked us with his hard and sententious sentence. He has asphyxiated us. You cant say anything anymore. But
seeing? Seeing no more than saying. The Large Glass,1 nothing to see, transparent. Given,2 nothing to be seen but a vulva, and for that reason nothing but a
cunt to see with.
Amendment
But no, its the opposite. His hardness does not come from the sententiousness of his sentences and products, it comes from their obscurity. Or even
from the obscurity of their destination. Do you know where its all going?
All what? Do you know where these sentences are leading? To lead, to
go? Do you know what purpose they have, what end they aim for? Well, I
dont see any except for one: to make us speak. To make us ask each other, or
ourselves, about it. It leads us to make commentary on it. His highly obscure
sentence calls for our sentences to comment sententiously on his sentence.
Hence the proliferation of wordy sententiae, and whats the harm? No harm,
no good, and no neither-nor either. By being elusive, through their obscurity,
his sentences attract ours to come forth and add themselves on. Thus we are

1
2

The Bride stripped bare by her Bachelors, even (The Large Glass); translation of La Marie mise nu par
ces Clibataires, mme (Le Grand Verre) (New York, 1915-23; Paris, 1912).
Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas; translation of Etant donns: 1 la chute deau, 2 le
gaz dclairage (New York, 1946-1966).

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| Incongruences

vouliez-vous donc voir par les trous de la porte ? Justement aprs lavoir
vu, ce trou de femme, vous ne savez plus. a et pas a. Vous croyiez
avoir voulu voir a, vous constatez ne plus vouloir le croire. Trous sur
trou. Quy a-t-il voir dun trou ? Un trou, dit Mme Rrose, est fait pour
voir, non pour tre vu. travers, tel est un trou. Perce et perspicacit.
Quavez-vous donc vu ? De quoi voir.
Didactique
Cette ide peut se faire apprhender aisment du regardeur : en inversant
le haut et le bas de Iimage de la Femme Nue (telle quelle est donne dans
ltude nomme tant donns le gaz dclairage et la chute deau et date
de 1948-1949), il ne peut manquer dapercevoir le profil dun Polichinelle
dont le nez est form par la cuisse gauche sectionne, le menton en
galoche par le bras gauche galement interrompu, la bouche fuyarde par
lombre que porte le sein gauche sur le thorax, et ltroite fente oculaire
par le sexe. Et sil prouve la moindre inquitude touchant la lgitimit de
notre Mthode quil prenne courage en se reportant au Systme WilsonLincoln (DDS, 93)1, lequel consiste tirer dun mme trait de ligne deux
profils dissemblables, imbriqus vrai dire selon laxe non pas vertical du
haut et du bas comme ici, mais horizontal de la droite et de la gauche.
Le Polichinelle videmment regarde vers le haut, linverse du sexe ; il est le
vis--vis de celui-ci, comme le regardeur dtant donns...
Objections
Cette Mthode est impraticable sur tant donns, luvre posthume,
qui ne se laisse pas du tout renverser, contrairement lobjet de 1949. Je
ne puis y voir rien dautre quun con. Et la mthode est, dautre part,
dun sentencieux Elle croit faire voir et comprendre ce quil y a voir
et prendre de ce con. Elle croit surmonter M. Marcel. Elle ignore sa
duret. Elle lattendrit. Je parie quelle finira par dire : ce que vous voyez
depuis vos trous de porte, cest Mlle Rrose nue vous arrosant de sa chute
deau ; ce que vous voyez dans mon image renverse, cest M. Marcel
lemploy du gaz. On dira : mais, mais cest dj lil de Bataille
Et tout sera bien. En troisime lieu, la mthode est phraseuse. Elle fait
1

Les rfrences notes DDS renvoient : Marcel Duchamp, Duchamp du signe, crits, nouvelle dition revue et
augmente par Michel Sanouillet avec la collaboration de Elmer Peterson, Paris, Flammarion, 1975.

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| Incongruences

constrained to be much more phrasey [phraseurs] than Monsieur Marcel. And as

for seeing, its the same thing. You put your eyes in the holes in the Spanish gate,
you see a vulva all lit up by a 150-watt spotlight, hairless, and you think you see
whatever you want to see. So what did you want to see through the holes in the
door? Thats just it, after seeing this female hole, you dont know anymore. That
and not that. You thought you had wanted to see that, but you notice that you
no longer want to think so. Holes onto a hole. Whats there to see about a hole? A
hole, says Mademoiselle Slavy, is made for seeing, not for being seen. For looking through, thats what a hole is. An opening, and perspicacity. So what did you
see? Something to see with.
Didactics
This idea can easily be grasped by the looker: by inverting the top and the bottom
of the picture of the study (1948-49) for Given, he cant fail to perceive the profile
of a Mr. Punch, whose nose is formed by the cut-off left thigh and the hooked
chin by the left arm, which is likewise truncated, and the runaway mouth by the
shadow thrown by the left breast on the chest, and the narrow eye-slit by the
cunt. And if he worries about the legitimacy of our Method, let him take courage
by referring to the Wilson-Lincoln System (DDS, 93),3 which consists in drawing
with a single line two dissimilar profiles, imbricated, it is true, not according to
the vertical axis of the top and the bottom as here, but according to the horizontal axis of the right and left.
The Punch-figure of course is looking up, unlike the cunt; hes its opposite
partner, like the spectator of Given.
Objections
This Method is unworkable for Given, the posthumous work, which cant be
turned upside down at all, contrary to the 1949 object. I cant see anything there
other than a cunt. And besides, the method is that of a sententious man... It
thinks it shows and explains whats there to be seen and taken from this cunt.
It thinks it can get on top of Monsieur Marcel. It doesnt realize his hardness.
It softens it. I bet it will end up saying: What you see from your door-holes is
Mademoiselle Rrose, naked, hosing you with her waterfall; what you see in
3

The references noted as DDS refer to Marcel Duchamp, Duchamp du signe, crits, new edition
revised and augmented by Michel Sanouillet with the collaboration of Elmer Peterson, Paris,
Flammarion, 1975.

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uvre. Vous avez renvers limage de la Femme, oh comme vous tes

intelligent, etc. Nous avons progress, etc. Vous avez trouv lhomme
dans la femme. Nous voyons mieux, nous saisissons Pourtant vous tes
toujours derrire votre porte, avec lair dun con.
Chorus
Ou bien il nous prive dair, ou bien il nous en impose un. Nous faisons
les professeurs parce que M. Marcel na rien profess, ou presque rien.
Il est contrariant, mais en outre il ne faut pas croire quon a gagn parce
quon a trouv cela. On ferait mieux de ne pas soccuper de lui.
Diagnostic
Quest-ce que vous allez faire, alors ? Ce sont l les petits dboires du critique. Cest toujours dur et contrariant ? Peut-tre pas toujours, mais a
lest ici parce que M. Marcel a tout le temps le critique dans son collimateur pour le dfier et sen gausser. Vous ne maurez pas, cest son ide fixe.
Cest moi, Marcel, dit Rrose. Je suis Rrose, dit Marcel. Je reste clibataire,
dit la marie. Je suis toujours mari, dit le clibataire. Jai deux dimensions, dit la plaque du Verre, mais sa transparence dit : Il y en a trois
Jai trois dimensions, dit la rgion den bas. Jen ai quatre au moins, dit
celle den haut. Je suis une ligne dhorizon dans une vue perspective, dit
une transversale de verre ; je suis le bord infrieur dun relev gomtral,
dit lautre. Je suis peut-tre une lvation dans ce gomtral, dit le Pendu
Femelle ; et moi peut-tre son plan, dit la Voie lacte.
Didactique
Dans cet esprit de dfi ou dincertitude notre lecteur et regardeur sera bien
inspir de considrer attentivement le corps de la Femme dtant donns Il savisera que le sein et lpaule droits sont dun homme, et surtout
quentre la vulve et lane droite, un gonflement suggre la naissance dune
bourse. En usant dun cache, il se persuadera que la moiti droite du corps
est mle, la gauche feminine. Cest en vain quil invoquera une bauche
de fesse femelle au lieu de la bourse, largument se retournera immdiatement en ceci : les garons ne retournent-ils pas leur appareil gnital entre
leurs cuisses serres pour sen faire une fente et fesse feinte ? Vous plaisantez : les cuisses ici ne sont pas prcisment serres
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my inverted image is Monsieur Marcel, the man from the gas company. Youll
say: But, but its already Batailles eye. And alls well. In the third place, the
method is phrasey. It makes a work. You have inverted the image of the Woman,
how clever you are, etc. Weve made progress, etc. You found a man in the
woman. We see, we get it And yet, youre still behind your door, looking at/like
a cunt.
Chorus
Either hes depriving us of air, or else hes imposing an air on us. Were playing professors because Monsieur Marcel hasnt professed anything, or hardly
anything. Hes irksome, but aside from that you mustnt think youve won just
because youve discovered that. Better not bother with him.
Diagnostic
So what will you do? These are the little setbacks of the critic. Is it always hard
and irksome? Not always, but it is so here because Monsieur Marcel has the critic
in his sights to defy him and poke fun at him. You wont get me, thats his obsession. Its me, Marcel, says Rrose. I am Rrose, says Marcel. Im staying celibate,
says the Bride. Im still married, says the Bachelor. I have two dimensions, says
the plate of Glass, but its transparency says: there are three I have three dimensions, says the lower region. I have at least four, says the upper region. Im a horizon line in a perspective view, says one transverse line of glass; Im the lower edge
of a geometral plot, says the other. Perhaps I am an elevation in this geometral
space, says the Pendu femelle, and maybe Im its plane view, says the Milky Way.
Didactics
In this spirit of defiance or uncertainty our reader and spectator will be inspired
to consider attentively the body of the Woman in Given. He will notice that the
right breast and shoulder are those of a man, and especially that between the
vulva and the right of the groin, a swelling suggests the birth of a scrotum. If
he masks one side at a time, hell be convinced that the right half of the body is
male, the left half female. It wont help to imagine an outline of a female bottom
instead of a scrotum: the argument shifts: dont boys press their genitals between
their legs to fake a slit? Youre joking: the thighs here arent exactly pressed
together.

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Objection
Vous revoil pris par le commentaire. Plutt la description ? C'est
la mme chose : si vous dcrivez, cest au moins pour faire voir ce quon
naurait pas vu sans vous, donc vous ajoutez votre commentaire au
visible. Vous dcrivez landrogynie, vous commentez donc la duplicit.
Vous faites lintelligent. Et aprs ? Est-ce quils ne fuient pas moins, M.
Marcel et Mlle Rrose ? Ils ne fuient pas moins. Et peut-tre ny a-t-il pas
de visible du tout. Seulement des phrases. Luvre de ce Monsieur-Dame
rsidant seulement dans ces gribouillis sur les bouts de papier dans les
Botes, projets ingnieux du genre Leonardo, mais dun Lonard dgot
de la pte ?
Rsolution
Il faudra donc tre consciencieux et phraseur comme dhabitude, et ne
rien laisser paratre de la seule chose importante, savoir quon est intress par Duchamp proportion inverse de ce quon a compris de lui
et quil vous a fait penser (commenter). Je ne veux pas dire : cest un
monde, cette uvre norme, il y a des annes passer dedans, beaucoup
de voyages faire pour la parcourir, etc. Au contraire luvre est trs peu,
et arme la lgre, opus expeditum. Ce ntait pas un chef darme, plutt
un franc tireur flegmatique. Chaque fois quon le commente, on le hisse
dun cran dans la hirarchie des pouvoirs culturels (= militaires), et on le
perd. II reste de lincommentable, pour le sauver. Mais nesprez pas vous
sauver en sa compagnie. Cet incommentable na rien de mystique : cest
simplement lincommensurable report dans le commentaire. Celui-ci
devra tre incongruent avec luvre.
Amendement
Il faudrait envisager une contre-ruse : il sagirait dans ce quon dit de
Duchamp non pas de chercher comprendre et montrer quon a compris, mais plutt le contraire, de chercher ne pas comprendre et de montrer quon na pas compris. Non, pas ce que vous croyez, pas du tout un
commentaire sur lincomprhensibilit en gnral ou en particulier, le sept
cent vingt-huitime texte moderne sur la modernit comme exprience du
Rien. Non, tre consciencieux et phraseur bel et bien, se coller sur le motif,
tre technique sil le faut, et en mme temps faire sentir linconsistance du
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Objection
There you are, caught again by commentary. Description, rather?
Its the same thing: If you describe, its to show what wouldnt have been
seen without you, so you add your words to the visible. You describe
androgyny, hence you comment on duplicity. Youre playing the cleverness game. And then what? Dont they still slip away, Monsieur Marcel
and Mademoiselle Rrose? Yes, they get away. Perhaps there isnt such
a thing as the visible at all. Merely phrases. The work of this Sir-andMadam resides solely in scribblings on bits of paper in the Boxes, ingenious projects in the style of Leonardo; but maybe a Leonardo who is sick
and tired of glue?
Resolution
Thus its necessary to be conscientious and phrasey as always, and hide
the one important thing, namely, that youre interested by Duchamp in
inverse proportion to the amount youve understood about him and the
amount hes made you think (comment on). I dont mean: its a world, this
enormous work; you could spend years in it, so many journeys to make in
order to get through it, etc. On the contrary, the work is very slight, and
lightly armed, opus expeditum. He wasnt a chief of staff, rather a phlegmatic irregular. Each time you comment on him, you raise him one notch
in the hierarchy of cultural (= military) powers, and you lose him. There
remains something uncommentable, to save him. But dont think you can
be saved by joining him. This uncommentable thing has nothing mystical
about it: its simply the incommensurable brought back into commentary.
Commentary will perforce be incongruent with the work.
Amendment
Youd have to think of a counter-ruse: In what you say about Duchamp,
the aim would be not to try to understand and to show that youve
understood, but rather the opposite, to try not to understand and to show
that you havent understood. No, not what you think, not a commentary
on incomprehensibility in general or in particular, the seven hundred and
twenty-eighth modern text on modernity as the experience of Nothing.
No, to be good and conscientious and phrasey, to stick to the motif, to
be technical if necessary, and at the same time to let the inconsistency of
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commentaire et du comment, respectivement de votre serviteur et de M.

Marcel, et de lun avec lautre, mais une inconsistance conquise, voyezvous, pas reue dans la dception, ni exhibite comme une vertu martyre
cardinale, au contraire le non-sens comme le trsor le plus prcieux.
Amendement
Linconsistance nest pas linsignifiance. Celle-ci peut tre aimable, elle
peut attirer notre tendresse, prendre tournure de got ou de doctrine.
Cela veut dire que le commentaire du corps ou de lesprit, quand il prend
pour objet linsignifiance, loublie pour son propre compte. On se met
vivre et penser selon le non-sens, lexercer et le commmorer. La tendresse quon a pour lui se met lui donner du sens, faire de lui raison
dtre et cause propager. Cest un peu arriv Dada, par o Duchamp
na pas pu tre Dada. L intervient la duret de linconsistance, pour rsister aux gots et aux raisons, bons ou mauvais, aux continuits. Sweeney
demande comment faire, Duchamp rpond : Par lemploi des techniques mcaniques (DDS, 181). Ce nest pas quon aime linhumain de
la mcanique pour lui-mme, on aime que sa logique, mene froidement,
et loin, permette de dcouvrir dans ce non-sens quon risque daimer pour
tel, dans cette femme, ce soleil dans leau, cette rue, tous insenss, encore
plus de force, de drlerie, de monstruosit. La conclusion est quil faudrait
parler mcaniquement de Duchamp, en phraseur machinal.
Apologie
Q. ce propos ne vous est-il pas arriv daller jusqu crire quil y
avait une jouissance de louvrier sur sa machine ? Un apptit de servitude ?
Cela a paru bien lger.
R. Je suis trs content que vous me posiez cette question, surtout
loccasion de la mcanique chez Duchamp. Un exemple gnral que je
citais lappui a pu faire scandale, celui de la formation de la classe ouvrire
anglaise au XIXe sicle. Un autre, au contraire trs singulier, donn par un
clbre otologiste, lexemple dun ouvrier dont la perception auditive ntait
presque pas affecte par le bruit de la machine sur laquelle il travaillait,
alors que sa frquence tait de lordre de 20 000 Hz, na pas beaucoup
retenu lattention, bien quil compltt le premier. travers ces deux cas,
pris exprs des chelles incomparables, il sagissait de faire entendre quil y
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the commentary and its object be felt, by Yours Truly and by Monsieur
Marcel, and by the one with the other, but a conquered inconsistency, you
see, not received in disappointment, nor exhibited as a cardinal virtue of
martyrdom, on the contrary, nonsense as the most precious treasure.
Amendment
Inconsistency is not insignificance. The latter can be likeable, can solicit
our tender feelings, take on the allure of taste or doctrine. That is, commentary of the body or the mind, when taking insignificance as its object,
forgets it for its own account. You begin to live and think according to
non-sense, to practice it and commemorate it. The tender feelings you
have for it begin to give it meaning, to make it into a raison dtre and a
cause to propagate. This is what happened to Dada, to some extent, which
is why Duchamp was unable to be a Dadaist. Theres where the hardness
of inconsistency intervenes, in order to resist tastes and reasons, good or
bad, to resist continuities. Sweeney asks how its done; Duchamp replies:
By the use of mechanical techniques (DDS, 181). Its not that you love
what is inhuman in a machine for its own sake, you love the way its logic,
coldly carried out, and distant, lets you discover in this nonsense that
youre in danger of loving for itself, this woman, this sun in the water,
this street, all of them senseless, with still more strength, humor, and
monstrosity. The conclusion is that you have to speak mechanically about
Duchamp, as a machine like phrasemaker.
Apology
Q. In this regard, didnt you once go so far as to write that there was
a pleasure of the worker at his machine? An appetite for servitude? That
seemed a bit too easy.
A. Im very glad you asked me that question, especially in connection
with the mechanics in Duchamp. A general example that I cited caused
a scandal: that of the formation of the English working class in the 19th
century. Another example, by contrast, was given by a celebrated earspecialist; the example of a worker whose auditory perception was hardly
affected by the noise of the machine on which he was working went unnoticed, even though the frequency was of the order of 20,000 Hz. Through
these two examples, deliberately taken from incomparable measures, the
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a l, dans la condition ouvrire la plus dure, une contribution impressionnante, une contribution qui fait facilement jeu gal, pour le moins, avec les
aventures des potes, des peintres, des musiciens, des mathmaticiens, des
explorateurs, des physiciens et des bricoleurs les plus tmraires.
Q. Contribution quoi ?
R. la dmensuration de ce quon tenait pour lhumain, la supportation de situations quon estimait insupportables. tait exig un autre
corps, dans un autre espace, celui des ateliers et des mines, avec dautres
rythmes et postures, ceux et celles commands par le service des machines,
sur une autre chelle, celle du capital, contraint une autre langue, celle
de lindustrie, et une sensibilit nouvelle faite au moins de petits montages tranges comme ce champ auditif neutralis sur la plage des 20 000
Hz. En particulier une exprience de la quantit, sans exemple dans la
tradition rurale. Javais beaucoup mis laccent sur les quantits.
Q. Et vous osiez invoquer, dit-on, la jouissance dans un tel sujet, qui
est celui de lexploitation et servitude.
R. Le vieux corps paysan-aristocratique europen en train de craquer
et tomber en morceaux, selon les exigences dun autre entendement et
dun autre sensorium, dont personne ne savait ce quils taient, allaient
tre : cela faisait un norme appel dair o tous taient aspirs.
Q. La rvolution industrielle, tout banalement ?
R. Oui, donc extrme intensit, si ce devait tre la rvolution qui mit
fin aux corps, espace, temps et logique constitus lors du nolithique. Et
pas seulement dans la tte des banquiers, manufacturiers et ingnieurs,
mais dans celle des travailleurs et leur corps. Dcrivez le sort de ceux-ci
en termes exclusifs dalination, exploitation et misre, vous les prsentez
comme des victimes ayant seulement subi tout le processus et ayant seulement acquis crance sur des rparations ultrieures (le socialisme). Vous
manquez et cachez lessentiel, qui nest pas non plus, comme le dit souvent Marx avec un cynisme par de darwinisme, laccroissement des forces
de production tout prix, mme la mort de beaucoup de travailleurs.
Vous manquez et cachez la mme nergie qui va se rpandre dans les arts
et les sciences, la jubilation et douleur de dcouvrir quon peut tenir (vivre,
travailler, penser, tre affect) l ou ctait jug insens. Lindiffrence au
sens, la duret. Quelque chose que Machiavel rservait au Prince, la virt.
Q. Allez jusqu dire quil y a une ascse industrielle
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point was to convey that there is in the hardest working-class condition

an impressive contribution that easily matches, and perhaps exceeds, the
adventures of poets, painters, musicians, mathematicians, physicists, and
the boldest tinkerers and tamperers.
Q. A contribution to what?
A. To the demeasurement of what was held to be the human, to the
toleration of situations that were thought to be intolerable. What was
demanded was another body, in a different space, that of the mines and
workshops, with different rhythms and postures, those commanded
by the serving of the machines, on a different scale, that of capital, constrained to another language, that of industry, and to a new sensibility
made up of little strange montages like this auditory field neutralized in
the 20,000-Hz band. In particular an experience of quantity, unexampled
in the rural tradition. I put a lot of emphasis on quantities.
Q. And it seems you dared to invoke the jouissance felt by such a subject, who is the subject of exploitation and servitude.
A. The old European peasant-aristocrat body cracking and falling to
pieces, according to the demands of a different mentality and a different sensorium, of which nobody knew the present or future nature: that
made an enormous indraft that sucked everybody up.
Q. The industrial revolution, as banal as that?
A. Yes, and hence an extreme intensity, if it was going to be the revolution that put an end to the neolithic concepts of body, space, time, and
logic. Not only in the heads of bankers, manufacturers, and engineers,
but in the heads and bodies of workers. If you describe the workers fate
exclusively in terms of alienation, exploitation, and poverty, you present
them as victims who only suffered passively the whole process and who
only gained credence on the strength of later reparations (socialism). You
miss the essential, which isnt the growth of the forces of production at
any price, nor even the death of many workers, as Marx often says with a
cynicism adorned with Darwinism. You miss the energy that later spread
through the arts and sciences, the jubilation and the pain of discovering that you can hold out (live, work, think, be affected) in a place where
it had been judged senseless to do so. Indifference to sense, hardness.
Something that Machiavelli reserved for the Prince, virt.
Q. Go on, say that there is such a thing as industrial asceticism
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R. Je parle dune ascse mcanique. Le proltariat, en y tant soumis,

a contribu la modernit. Il est inexact et il est sot den faire un btail
qui na pu entrer dans lavenir qu reculons et sous les coups.
Q. Vous jugez sans doute indiffrent que cette ascse soit contrainte
ou volontaire
R. Vous voulez dire : pour le travailleur cette duret est sans remde et
sans issue ; pour un artiste, il en sort quand il veut, et peut se refaire dans
la tendresse de la vie quotidienne. Et vous voulez dire : linsupportable
nest pas le mcanique, cest lindustriel, qui est linhumain du mcanique et son exclusivit perptuelle rserve lO.S. et au manuvre.
Q. Je dirai plus : vous avez os dire quils ont joui de ce que la destruction de leur vieux corps leur soit impose.
R. Cela est trs mal vu en ces temps de libration , lide que quelque
chose dintense vous arrive sans que vous layez voulu, cela passe pour un
loge de la dpendance, lequel au prix dun glissement minime et bien
naturel dans les matires politiques est entendu comme une apologie de la
servitude. Si vous ajoutez cela un brin de jouissance, vous voil perdu :
vous tes pris en train de prner la volont dtre asservi. Et vous lavez
voulu, somme toute : vous avez prtendu dcrire les faits sociaux et politiques en termes daffects, projet stupide et ractionnaire qui nous ramne
Hobbes et Machiavel, pour ne pas dire Thucydide ! La raison seule est
progressiste, non ? Si lhistoire nest pas vaine, cest quelle a un sens, et si
elle a un sens, il y a des raisons ou des causes ou des signifiants assignables
aux faits. Votre jouissance prouve ici ou l par tel ou tel sujet historique, vraiment on sen moque. Vos ouvriers anglais, dites-le carrment, ils
taient contents, tirer leurs chariots quatre pattes dans les galeries de
houille, ils en voulaient ? On connat ces discours. Etc.
Q. Arrtez. Rpondez.
R. Srement pas. Jouissance , ces Franais croient que a veut dire
leuphorie qui suit un repas arros au Beaujolais. Proltarisation considre comme prostitution, ils ne croient pas que cest dans Marx, ou alors
une mtaphore littraire. En tout cas il ne doit pas y avoir de jouissance
se prostituer. Et surtout pas y tre contraint. Ici la mprise est son
comble, et le mpris donc. Laissons a. La duret dont nous parlons,
cest celle-ci : pousss, attirs dans les manufactures, dans les mines, les
ex-paysans sont placs devant un dfi irrelevable, par exemple travailler
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| Incongruences

A. Im talking about a mechanical asceticism. The proletariat, in

being subjected to it, contributed to modernity. It is inaccurate and foolish to see them as cattle who couldnt enter the future except backwards
and under a hail of blows.
Q. So you think its a matter of indifference whether this asceticism be
forced or voluntary
A. You mean: For the worker there is no escape from this hardness;
but an artist escapes whenever he likes. He can remake himself in the tenderness of everyday life. You mean: The unbearable is not the mechanical;
its the industrial, the inhumanness of the mechanical and its perpetual
exclusivity reserved for the skilled and unskilled laborer.
Q. Ill say even more: You dared to say that they enjoyed the imposed
destruction of their old bodies.
A. This is very unwelcome in these times of liberation, the idea that
something intense happens to you without your having wanted it. This is
taken as praise of dependency, which by a slight and natural slippage into
political matters is understood as an apology for servitude. If you add a
dash of enjoyment, youre finished: youre caught commending the will
to be enslaved. And youve been asking for it, all right: Youve claimed to
describe social and political facts in terms of affects, a stupid and reactionary project that takes us back to Hobbes and Machiavelli, not to mention
Thucydides! Reason alone is progressive, right? If history is not in vain,
it must have meaning, and if it has a meaning, there are reasons or causes
or signifiers assignable to the facts. Your enjoyment felt here and there
by such and such a historical subject, really we dont give a damn about it.
Your English workers, why dont you come right out and say it, they were
happy pulling their wagons on all fours in the coal mines, thats what
they wanted? We know this kind of talk, etc.
Q. Stop it. Give me an answer.
A. Certainly not. Jouissance. The French think it means the euphoria
that follows a meal washed down with Beaujolais. Proletarianization as
prostitution, they dont believe thats in Marx; its only a literary metaphor. In any case there must not be enjoyment in prostituting yourself.
And especially not in being forced to it. Here misprision is at its height,
and also the contempt. Lets forget it. The hardness of which we speak
is this: Pushed, seduced into factories, into mines, the ex-peasants are
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| Incongruences

avec 20 000 Hz de bruit dans loreille. Ils le relvent. Comment ? Par

transformation du corps ; par exemple, la plage des frquences correspondantes se trouve neutralise dans laudiogramme. La mtamorphose
des corps et des esprits se fait dans lagitation, la violence, une espce
de folie (jai dit : hystrie, entre autres). Elle comporte forcment un
moment de dmesure, quand il ny a pas de mesure commune ce dont
on vient, le vieux corps, et ce o lon va. Toujours lincommensurabilit, ici dans la projection de la figure humaine, partir dun espace
repr, sur un autre, inconnu. Accepter cela, cest tendre la puissance.
Voil la duret dont Duchamp fait un relev sa manire, dans son coin.
Fin de mon apologie.
Q. Non, un mot sur le dfinitif de la duret pour louvrier et sur son
provisoire pour lartiste.
R. Un mot : cette diffrence est vidente. Cest pourquoi un minimum en matire de politique sociale est la commutation des personnes
sur les postes et sur les genres de travail : le polytechnicisme. Choses
proposes dans notre petit organe ds 1955.
Q. Quel esthte vous faites !
R. Une note de 1913 rpondra trs suffisamment cela : la figuration
dun possible (pas comme contraire dimpossible ni comme relatif probable ni comme subordonn vraisemblable). Le possible est seulement
un mordant physique (genre vitriol) brlant toute esthtique et callistique (DDS, 104). Jajoute : brlant toute politique, telle que limpliquent vos questions.
Complment millimtr
Cette duret 1 est celle des descriptions, et 2 elle implique lhumour.
Quand on monte un mcanisme, il faut en tablir un schma aussi prcis
que possible, son gomtral complet par plan, lvation et profil. Cette
gomtrie descriptive sur papier millimtr, Duchamp la pratique au
mme titre quun projeteur ; lhorlogerie qui laccompagne, au mme
titre quun outilleur. Entre les projets jets linfinitif sur des bouts de
papier et les uvres faites, il y a les tudes, et juste avant les tudes, les
travaux de projection. On a de latelier clibataire un plan et une lvation millimtrs ; et des chambres dtant donns aussi. Ces contraintes
despace et de temps ne sont pas des jeux, mais des contrats passs entre
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| Incongruences

placed before an unacceptable challenge, for instance, to work with a

20,000-Hz noise in their ears. They accept it. How? By transforming their
bodies; for example, the noise gets neutralized in their auditory spectrum. The metamorphosis of bodies and minds happens in excitement,
violence, a kind of madness (I have called it hysteria, among other things).
It includes outrageousness, immoderation, excessiveness, when there is
no common measure between what youre coming from (the old body)
and where youre going. Always incommensurability, here in the projection of the human figure, starting from a familiar space, on to another
space, an unknown one. To accept that is to extend your power. This is the
hardness of which Duchamp takes a reading, in his way, in his corner. End
of my apology.
Q. No, a word on what is definitive about hardness for the worker and
yet provisional for the artist.
A. A word: this difference is obvious. It is why a minimum of social
policy is the commutation of persons to posts and to types of work: polytechnicism. Just what weve been proposing in our little teachings since
1955.
Q. What an aesthete you are!
A. A note from 1913 will answer that very adequately: the figuration of
a possible (not as the opposite of impossible nor as relative to the probable
nor as subordinated to the likely). The possible is only a physical corrosive
(like vitriol) that burns away all aesthetics and all callistics (DDS, 104). I
add: that burns away all politics, as implied by your questions.
Millimetered complement
This hardness (a) is that of descriptions, and (b) it implies humor. When
you assemble a mechanism you have to establish as precisely as possible a
diagram of it, its complete geometral plan, end elevation, and front elevation. Duchamp practices this descriptive geometry on millimeter-squared
paper in the same way as a technical draftsman; and he practices the clockwork that accompanies it in the same way as a toolmaker. Between the
plans thrown down on paper in the infinitive form and the finished works
there are the studies, and just before the studies, the projection-sketches.
We have a millimetered plan and elevation of the Bachelor apparatus; and
of the rooms of Given as well. These constraints of space and time are not
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| Incongruences

lesprit et ses expressions plastiques, et cest le corps, le corps habituel,

institu, nolithique, tel quil se reprsente lui-mme selon sa prtendue
identit, qui en fait les frais.
Il va falloir quil se mette la dmesure du pens et du relev, sil doit
suivre ; quil excde ses donnes ; quil invente ses possibilits. Quand
Duchamp rflchit au possible, ce nest pas comme une modalit opposable dautres, mais comme un dtersif qui dcape les habitudes et
comme un rvulsif qui vacue les acquis. Que le Grand Verre ft une
machine automobile ou plutt son capot (DDS, 247), ce nest pas une
mtaphore, cest une mthode de dissimilation.
Supplment hilare
Quant lhumour, en traiterais-je srieusement ? Il rside dans la conviction que ces lois imposes lil, au mouvement, ces contraintes bizarres,
ne sont pas naturelles, quelles sont arbitraires, quelconques, prcises,
mais inexactes (comme Duchamp le dit Steefel), sans rfrence assignable. Loi suirfrentielle, contrat avec soi-mme. Ajouter encore ceci :
de ce que la loi nest pas elle-mme lgitime, rgle par un au-del de la
loi, une toute-puissance, une toute-bont, un tout-ordre, il rsulte quon
na aucune garantie de sy conformer. Il faut que Dieu soit bien bon
pour que, une fois accomplis ses ordres, il ne se moque pas de vous en
disant : maldonne, ce ntait pas ce que je voulais dire, ni ce que tu
devais faire. Il y aura donc, si Dieu nest pas bon mais rus, ou sil nest
pas du tout, ou sil est plusieurs dieux jaloux les uns des autres, il y aura
entre ltablissement des contrats (projets) et leur accomplissement (excution des uvres) une sorte de jeu au sens mcanique, qui fait quon ne
saura jamais si cest parce que lartiste a observ exactement le projet que
luvre est bonne ou peut-tre au contraire mauvaise, ou si cest parce
que quelque chose sest pass qui ntait pas prvu au contrat que luvre
est mauvaise ou au contraire bonne. Il en est ici comme de la saintet
chez les Hassidim : le plus parfait est peut-tre le plus condamn, et le
plus ignoble, le plus sain. Le cahot du camion qui fla le Verre en traversant le Connecticut il y a cinquante ans fut pris comme un coup de la
grce, pas comme le coup de grce.

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| Incongruences

games but contracts made between the mind and its plastic expressions,
and its the body, the habitual, instituted, neolithic body, as it represents
itself to itself in terms of its supposed identity, that bears the brunt.
Its going to have to put itself at the unmeasure of whats been thought
and noted down, if it is to develop; let it exceed its givens; let it invent its
possibilities. When Duchamp reflects on the possible, it isnt like a modality opposable to others, but like a detergent that washes away habits,
like a revulsant that evacuates the established facts. That the Large Glass
should be an automobile machine, or rather its hood (DDS, 247); is not a
metaphor; its a method of dissimilation.
Hilarious supplement
As for humor, would I treat it seriously? It resides in the conviction that
these laws imposed on the eye, on movement, these bizarre constraints,
are not natural, that they are arbitrary, random, precise, but inexact
(as Duchamp says to Steefel), without any assignable reference. A selfreferring law, a contract with oneself. Add this too: From the fact that the
law is itself not legitimate, not regulated by a beyond of the law, by an
omnipotence, an omni-goodness, an omni-order, comes the result that
you have no guarantee of conforming to it. God must be good indeed if
he is not going to mock you by saying to you, once youve carried out his
orders: Misdeal! That isnt what I meant, nor is it what you had to do.
Thus there will be, if God is not good but cunning, or if he is not at all, or
if he is several different gods all mutually jealous of one another, there
will be between the establishment of the contracts (projects) and their
accomplishment (carrying out of the works) a sort of play in the mechanical sense, which has the result that youll never know whether the artist
observed the plan exactly that the work is good or perhaps, on the contrary, bad, or whether something happened that wasnt provided for in
the contract that the work is bad or on the contrary good. Whats going on
here is like sanctity for the Hassidim: the most perfect is perhaps the most
damned, and the most ignoble, the most healthy. The jolt of the truck
that cracked the Glass while crossing Connecticut fifty years ago was taken
as a stroke of grace, not as the coup de grce.

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| Incongruences

Rectificatif
Vous faites lhilare, mais somme toute vous tes on ne peut plus srieux. Au
point de nous donner Duchamp en modle de pense politique. De comparer ses fariboles aux souffrances des travailleurs. Je ne demande mme
pas quel homme sens ira chercher dans le Grand Verre le modle dune
pense rpublicaine et socialiste ou dans le diorama dtant donns le
tableau dun avenir populaire. Bref, il nest pas besoin de montrer labsurdit de vos dernires rflexions. Mais permettez quon vous fasse observer
quelles sont du moins inconsistantes avec les prcdentes, qui optaient
pour le non-sens : celles-ci, prsent, surchargent Duchamp, et son usage
des mcaniques, dun norme lest de significations rattaches, vaseusement
vrai dire, la rvolution technologique des deux derniers sicles. Cela fait
bien du sens, quand on a choisi le parti de linconsistance.
Exorde
Innocent celui qui croit quon peut se tenir dans linconsistance comme
on se tient dans le srieux : cest--dire de faon consistante ! Il faut se
tenir inconsistamment dans linconsistance, donc y mler des segments
consistants, et les rendre indiscernables des autres. Vous allez voir que
Duchamp tourne tout entier autour de cette acadmique question des
indiscernables, qui porta aussi le nom de question des incongruents
dans les problmes de gomtrie. Cest sur cette question que les quatre
tudes runies ici sarticulent ensemble : elle forme leur commune charnire, tant bien que mal, avec des empitements, des redites, et aussi des
contradictions . Elles sont des relevs de travaux faits en cours de route,
en 1974, en 1975, en 1976, plutt quun seul expos des rsultats obtenus. Aprs coup, vous y dcouvrez une espce denttement faire partir
ltude de Duchamp de ce champ des superpositions impossibles, projections bizarres, charnires spciales, anamorphoses, incongruences, qui a
donn matire lAnalysis situs, la topologie, cest--dire une sorte de
raisonnement sur les grandeurs qui sinterdit lhypothse (la facilit) de
leur commensurabilit. Cet enttement sest trouv justifi, sagissant de
Duchamp, par les rsultats que de vrais chercheurs ont obtenus de leur
ct durant la mme priode, je pense en particulier aux conclusions de
Jean Clair et de Ulf Linde. Cela ne suffirait pourtant pas accrditer la
publication des brouillons qui suivent.
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| Incongruences

Rectification
Youre acting hilarious, but overall you are as serious as can be. Youre
giving us Duchamp as a model of political thought. To compare his fripperies with the sufferings of the workers. I wont even ask what sane man
sees in the Large Glass the model of republican socialist thought, or in the
diorama of Given the picture of a future for the masses. In short, there
is no need to prove this absurdity. But allow me to remark that they are
at least inconsistent with the previous ones, which opted for non-sense:
these latter, at present, overload Duchamp, and his use of mechanisms,
with an enormous ballast of meanings attached, in a confused way to
tell the truth, to the technological revolution of the past two centuries. That indeed makes sense, when one has chosen to take the side of
inconsistency.
Exordium
Innocent is he who thinks you can stand in inconsistency as you might
stand in seriousness: i.e., consistently. You must hold yourself inconsistently in inconsistence, and mix segments of consistency in with it, and
make them indiscernible from the others. Youll see that the whole of
Duchamp turns upon this academic question of indiscernibles, which
also bears the name question of incongruents in geometry. This question forms the articulation point of the four studies that are brought
together here: it forms their common hinge, for better or for worse, with
encroachments, repetitions, and also contradictions. They are the record
of work done along the way, in 1974, 1975, 1976, rather than a single exposition of the results. Later youll discover in them a kind of stubbornness
about making the study of Duchamp begin from that field of impossible
superpositions, strange projections, special turning points, anamorphoses, incongruences, which provided material for the Analysis situs, for
topology, that is, for a sort of reasoning about sizes that forbids itself the
hypothesis (the facility) of their commensurability. This stubbornness
was justified, with regard to Duchamp, by the results that real researchers
obtained during the same period. Im thinking in particular of Jean Clair
and Ulf Linde. However, this would not be enough to justify the publication of the sketches that follow.

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| Incongruences

Mais si vous consentez les prendre comme des contributions non

seulement une esthtique, mais une politique topologique, alors
vous aurez perc lintention de votre serviteur. Quest-ce dire ? Vous
savez que le principe dmocratique et sa mise en uvre constitutionnelle, quelle quen soit la varit, est indissociable dune reprsentation
de lespace et des grandeurs dans lespace telle que cet espace, entendez le
politique, est suppos homogne et isomorphe en tous ses points, et que
toutes les grandeurs qui sy trouvent sont juges commensurables : cest
sur ce fond de gomtrie euclidienne que lide dgalit dmocratique se
trouve assise, tout citoyen tant, nous y revoil, indiscernable dun autre
dans une pareille hypothse.
Or la dcouverte des incongruences et des incommensurabilits, si on
la reporte de lespace du gomtre celui du citoyen, oblige reconsidrer les axiomes les plus inconscients de la pense et de la pratique politiques. Si les citoyens ne sont pas indiscernables, sils sont par exemple
la fois symtriques par rapport un point, le centre quest la loi, et
nanmoins insuperposables les uns aux autres, comme nous le savons
des propritaires ou bureaucrates du capital et des vendeurs de force de
travail, comme nous le savons des hommes et des femmes, des Blancs et
des colored people, des mtropolitains et des provinciaux, des jeunes et
des adultes, alors votre reprsentation de lespace politique se trouve bien
embarrasse. Et si vous navez pas dsespr de votre vie sous prtexte
que toute justice tait perdue avec la commensurabilit, si vous navez
pas alors couru abriter une ignoble dtresse sous lautorit dun grand
signifiant capable de restaurer cette gomtrie, si au contraire vous pensez
comme votre serviteur que le moment est bon de rendre celle-ci tout
fait invalide, de hter sa dcadence et dinventer une justice topologique,
alors vous avez dj compris ce quun Botien peut chercher en fouillant
dans les notules et les bricoles de Duchamp : des matriaux, des outils et
des armes pour une politique des incommensurables.
15 aot 1976 et 15 fvrier 1977

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| Incongruences

But if you consent to take them as contributions not only to an aesthetics but to a topological politics, then youll have discovered the intention of Yours Truly. Which means what? You know that the democratic
principle and its constitutional implementation, of whatever variety, is
indissociable from a representation of space and sizes in space such that
this space, i.e., the space of politics, is assumed to be homogeneous and
isomorphic in all its points, and that all sizes found in it are judged to be
commensurable: it is on this foundation of Euclidean geometry that the
idea of democratic equality rests, each citizen being, in such a hypothesis,
indiscernible from any other.
But the discovery of incongruences and incommensurabilities, if one
brings it back from the space of the geometrist to that of the citizen,
obliges us to reconsider the most unconscious axioms of political thought
and practice. If the citizens are not indiscernible, if they are, for instance,
both symmetrical in relation to a point (the center, which is the law) and
nevertheless non-superimposable on one another (as we know is the case
for the owners or bureaucrats of capital and the sellers of labor power, as
we know is the case for men and women, for whites and colored people,
for urbanites and provincials, for young people and adults), then your
representation of political space is very embarrassed. And if you havent
despaired of your life on the pretext that all justice was lost when incommensurability was lost, if you havent gone running to hide your ignoble
distress beneath the authority of a great signifier capable of restoring
this geometry, if on the contrary you think, like Yours Truly, that its the
right moment to render this geometry totally invalid, to hasten its decay
and to invent a topological justice, well then, youve already understood
what a Philistine could be doing searching among the little notes and
improvisations of Duchamp: materials, tools, and weapons for a politics
of incommensurables.

15 August 1976 and 15 February 1977

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Duchamp as a transformer
Ces remarques ont t proposes une table ronde sur Duchamp lors dun colloque On the
Performance organis Milwaukee, Wis., en novembre 1976, par Michel Benamou.

Comme tout le monde, jai des difficults avec les mots performance,
performer. En revanche, une formule comme : Duchamp as a transformer me semble comprhensible. Je propose de remplacer performer par
transformer.
Soit la fabrication des stoppages-talon : Si un fil droit horizontal
dun mtre de longueur tombe dun mtre de hauteur sur un plan horizontal en se dformant son gr et donne une figure nouvelle de lunit
de longueur (DDS, 36). Ce qui est important dans cette opration nest
pas lacte, la performance de M. Marcel Duchamp laissant tomber sa
ficelle. Ce qui est important, cest la projection de celle-ci grce lnergie motrice de la pesanteur et au dispositif de transformation quest le
hasard. La projection comme transformance
On a une photographie de Marcel Duchamp en femme. M. Marcel
se projette en Mlle Rrose Slavy. Le problme nest pas celui du travestissement. Il est celui-ci : au moyen de quelle nergie et de quels dispositifs transformateurs (canaliseurs ou redistributeurs dnergie) un visage
dhomme peut-il tre projet en visage de femme, ou inversement ?
On considre les deux figures dun mme objet N (= neutre, le nom
Duchamp) projetes dans deux espaces, le masculin et le fminin. Laccent
est mis ici sur la similitude des figures, non pas sur leur incongruence.
Mais cest leur similitude qui est incongruente au regard de la croyance
en la diffrence des sexes. De la mme manire deux volumes semblables
symtriques par rapport un plan, par exemple le gant de la main droite
et le gant de la main gauche, ne sont pas superposables : lun nentre pas
dans lautre. Laccent est mis ici sur lincongruence, mais cest toujours
un problme de projection, et cest encore lincongruence (mathmatique) qui est incongruente par rapport au prjug de la parfaite symtrie
des vertbrs.
En matire de langage, Duchamp recherche les mmes effets de
transformation par projection. Ils peuvent tre obtenus aux diffrents
niveaux de langage. Un exemple seulement : Si vous voulez une rgle de
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Duchamp as a transformer
These remarks were presented at a panel discussion on Duchamp at a colloquium On the
Performance organized in Milwaukee, Wis., in November 1976, by Michel Benamou.

Like everyone else, I have problems with the words performance, performer.
On the other hand, a phrase like Duchamp as a transformer seems to me
comprehensible. I propose to replace performer by transformer.
Lets take, for instance, the fabrication of the Standard Stoppages: If a
straight horizontal thread one metre long falls from a height of one metre
on to a horizontal plane, deforming itself at its own free will and gives a
new figure of the unit of length (DDS, 36). Whats important in this operation is not the act, the performance of Monsieur Marcel Duchamp dropping his thread. What is important is the projection of this thread thanks
to the motor energy of its weight and to the apparatus of transformation,
which is chance. Projection as transformance
There is a photograph of Marcel Duchamp as a woman. Monsieur
Marcel projects himself into Mademoiselle Rrose Slavy. The problem
is not that of putting on drag. It is this: By means of what energy and
of what transformative apparatuses (for channeling or redistributing
energy) can a mans face be projected as a womans face, or vice versa?
Consider the two figures of one and the same object N (= neuter, the name
Duchamp) projected into two spaces, the masculine and the feminine.
Here the accent is placed on the similitude of the two figures, not on their
incongruence. But its their similitude that is incongruent with regard to
the belief in the difference of the sexes. In the same way, two similar volumes that are symmetrical in relation to a plane, for example the glove of
the right hand and the glove of the left hand, are not superimposable: the
one wont go into the other. Here the accent is placed on their incongruence, but its still a problem of projection, and its still their (mathematical) incongruence that is incongruent with regard to the prejudice of the
perfect symmetry of vertebrates.
Concerning language, Duchamp seeks the same effects of transformation by projection. They can be obtained at the different levels of language. One example only: If you want a rule of grammar: the verb agrees
consonantly with the subject: For example: le ngre aigrit, les ngresses
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| Duchamp as a transformer

grammaire : le verbe saccorde avec le sujet consonnament : Par exemple :

le ngre aigrit, les ngresses saigrissent ou maigrissent (DDS, 159). Les
rgles grammaticales sont celles de la dclinaison pour le nom et de la
conjugaison pour le verbe. Ce sont deux systmes de marquage indpendants, au moins partiellement. Ici, Duchamp propose de les marquer
par une seule rgle, dont il emprunte le principe Jean-Pierre Brisset, et
qui consiste dans une drivation (dclinaison) simplement phonique. Les
deux systmes indpendants sont rendus semblables par la projection sur
eux dune mme rgle.
Nous savons par la Bote Blanche que la problmatique plastique
du Grand Verre est celle des projections. La rgion du bas, rgion clibataire, est traite selon les procds de la perspective italienne : des
objets 3-dimensionnels sont projets sur une surface 2-dimensionnelle au
moyen de la costruzione legittima : point de vue et point de fuite symtriques, orthogonales de la mise au carreau ; point de distance, diagonales
de construction. Leffet produit est en principe celui du 3-dimensionnel
virtuel, celui de lespace profond creus sur le support par la perspective.
Mais comme le support est en verre transparent, lil paradoxalement ne
peut pas le traverser pour explorer lespace virtuel. Quand il le traverse, il
rencontre les objets rels qui se trouvent derrire le Verre, par exemple
la fentre de la salle du Muse de Philadelphie. Il est renvoy sa propre
activit, sans pouvoir se perdre dans les objets virtuels, comme le veut
leffet de ralit. Transformation de la transformation perspectiviste.
Le Verre est fait de deux rgions spares par des barres de verre, celle
du bas rgion des clibataires, celle du haut rgion de la marie. Les transversales qui les sparent sont comme la charnire (les charnires) dun
miroir deux (ou trois) faces. Les deux espaces virtuels du haut et du
bas sont lun par rapport lautre en relation dincongruence comme
les deux gants. Marie et clibataires occupent des espaces semblables et
insuperposables, sauf si lon fait intervenir un mta-oprateur (qui serait
4-dimensionnel). (En ralit la situation est un peu plus complique :
les figures du haut, morceaux de la de marie, ne sont pas les projections
dun objet 3-dimensionnel sur un plan, mais les projections 2-dimensionnelles des projections 3-dimensionnelles dun objet 4-dimensionnel ;
le mta-oprateur devrait tre 5-dimensionnel.)

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saigrissent ou maigrissent (DDS, 159).1 The grammatical rules are those

of declension for the noun and of conjugation for the verb. These two
systems of marking are at least partially independent. Here, Duchamp
proposes to mark them by one rule, whose principle he borrows from
Jean-Pierre Brisset, and that consists in a simply phonic derivation
(declension). The two independent systems are made similar by the projection onto them of one and the same rule.
We know from the White Box that the plastic problematic of the Large
Glass is that of projections. The lower region, the Bachelor region, is
treated according to the procedures of Italian perspective: three-dimensional objects are projected onto a two-dimensional surface by means
of the costruzione legittima: symmetrical viewpoint and vanishing point,
orthogonal lines of the transfer to the square; distance-point, diagonal
lines of construction. The effect produced is in principle that of the
virtual three-dimensional, that of deep space dug out in the support by
perspective. But as the support is made of transparent glass, the eye paradoxically cannot traverse it to explore the virtual space. When it traverses
it, it encounters the real objects that are behind the Glass, for example
the window of the exhibition room of the Philadelphia Museum. It is
thrown back onto its own activity, without being able to lose itself in
virtual objects, as the reality-effect would have it. A transformation of the
perspectivist transformation.
The Glass is made of two regions separated by bars of glass, the lower
one being the region of the Bachelors, and the upper one the region of
the Bride. The transversal lines that separate them are like the hinge (the
hinges) of a mirror with two or three faces. The two virtual spaces of the
top and the bottom are in a relation of incongruence one with the other
like the two gloves. Bride and Bachelors occupy similar and non-superimposable spaces, unless you bring in a meta-operator (which would be
four-dimensional). (In reality the situation is a little more complicated:
the figures of the top, pieces of the Bride, are not the projections of a
three-dimensional object onto a plane, but the two-dimensional projections of the three-dimensional projections of a four-dimensional object;
the meta-operator would have to be five-dimensional.)

The negro embitters, the negress turns sour or gets thinner [translators note].

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La relation entre le Grand Verre et la dernire uvre (tant donns : 1

la chute deau, 2 le gaz dclairage) est elle-mme une projection ou un
groupe de projections, qui fait passer tous les lments du Verre dans ceux
du dernier Nu. Chaque lment subit une transformation singulire. On
devrait pouvoir trouver le dispositif transformateur, qui doit tre trs
complexe. Je dirai en bref que lon passe dune formulation plastique
asctique et critique, celle du Verre, une formulation populaire, pornographique, paenne, celle dtant donns..., mais lune et lautre dun
mme objet. Cet objet est encore un nom (Duchamp est nominaliste), le
nom de la femme mise nu.
Ce nom est lui-mme une charnire ou une projection oprant entre
deux temps. Lexpression La Marie mise nu est quivoque : la
femme est-elle dj mise nu, ou ne lest-elle pas encore ? La mise nu
par elle-mme ne dure quun instant (celui de l panouissement de
la femme, comme lcrit Duchamp) qui est projet selon deux temporalits incongruentes, mais symtriques, dans les deux grandes uvres :
le temps du Grand Verre est celui dune mise nu qui nest pas encore
faite, le temps dtant donns celui dune mise nu qui est dj faite.
Le Verre est le retard du nu, tant donns son avance. Cest trop tt
pour voir la femme se mettant nue sur le Verre, et cest trop tard sur la
scne dtant donns
Le performer (?) est un transformer complexe, une batterie de machines
mtamorphoser. Il ny a pas dart, puisquil ny a pas dobjets. Il ny a
que des transformations, des redistributions dnergie. Le monde est une
multiplicit de dispositifs qui transforment des units dnergie les unes
dans les autres. Le transformer Duchamp ne veut pas rpter les mmes
effets. Cest pourquoi il doit tre beaucoup de ces dispositifs. Et se mtamorphoser lui-mme beaucoup. Il veut toujours gagner le premier prix
aux Concours des Brevets dInvention.
Duchamp as several transformers.
Le 17 novembre 1976

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The relation between the Large Glass and the last work, Given, is itself
a projection or a group of projections, which passes all the elements of
the Glass into those of the last Nude. Each element undergoes a singular
transformation. We ought to be able to find the transforming apparatus, which must be very complex. I will briefly say that you pass from
an ascetic and critical plastic formulation, that of the Glass, to a popular,
pornographic, pagan formulation, that of Given, but both of them are formulations of one and the same object. This object is still a name (Duchamp
is a nominalist), the name of the woman laid bare.
This name is itself a hinge or a projection operating between two times.
The expression The Bride laid bare is equivocal: is the woman already
naked, or not yet? The stripping-naked by itself lasts but an instant (that of
the blossoming of the woman, as Duchamp writes), which is projected
according to two incongruent but symmetrical temporalities in the two
great works: the time of the Large Glass is that of a stripping naked not
yet done; the time of Given is that of a stripping naked already done. The
Glass is the delay of the nude; Given is its advance. Its too soon to see the
woman laying herself bare on the Glass, and its too late on the stage of
Given.
The performer (?) is a complex transformer, a battery of metamorphosis
machines. There is no art, because there are no objects. There are only
transformations, redistributions of energy. The world is a multiplicity of
apparatuses that transform units of energy into one another. Duchamp
the transformer does not want to repeat the same effects. That is why he
must be many of these apparatuses, and must metamorphose himself
continually. He wants to win first prize every time, in all the competitions, for new patents.
Duchamp as several transformers.*2
17 November 1976

Words and expressions marked with an asterisk * are in English in the original
[translators note].

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Une premire version de ce texte a t publie sous un autre titre dans le catalogue de lexposition Les Machines clibataires organise par H. Szeemann et prsente pour la premire
fois Berne en juillet 1975. Ce catalogue, intitul Junggesellen Maschinen/ Les Machines
clibataires et publi dabord en version bilingue allemand-franais, suivie dune autre
anglais-italien, avait pour responsables Jean Clair et Harold Szeemann. Il a t dit Venise
en 1975 par Alfieri Edizioni et H. Szeemann.
Au revoir ! En effet, nous nous reverrons.
Une seule condition : divorons .
Nietzsche ( Strindberg)

Machinations
Franz Reuleaux dfinit la machine une combinaison de corps rsistants,
assembls de telle faon que, par leur moyen et par certaines motions
dterminantes, les forces mcaniques de la nature soient obliges de faire
le travail . On insiste souvent sur le mcanisme des machines ; ainsi
Canguilhem : assemblage de parties dformables avec restauration priodique des mmes rapports entre parties ; Reuleaux suggre une autre
direction : ce mme mcanisme est un pige tendu des forces naturelles.
Lintressant nest pas dabord quil se perptue travers son usage,
restaurant son identit dun cycle productif lautre et dterminant ainsi
une certaine temporalit ; mais quil soit un pige, un dispositif qui permet de renverser des rapports de force. La machine nest alors ni un instrument ni une arme, mais un artifice, qui est et qui nest pas coupl avec
la nature : elle lest parce quelle ne fonctionne pas sans capter et exploiter
des forces naturelles ; elle ne lest pas parce quelle joue un tour ces
forces, tant elle-mme moins forte quelles, ralisant cette monstruosit :
que le moins fort soit plus fort que le plus fort.
Avec lide des machines clibataires spanouit, en pleine lumire, cet
inconscient de ruse qui est impliqu dans linvention des mcanismes et
que la pense technique moderne et contemporaine a fait taire au bnfice du projet de domination et possession de la nature. La mchan des
Grecs anciens est demble la machination, et elle nest quelle.

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A first version of this text was published under a different title in the catalogue of the exhibition
The Bachelor Machines organized by H. Szeemann and presented for the first time in Berne in
July 1975. This catalogue, entitled Junggesellen Maschinen/Les Machines clibataires and
first published in a bilingual German-French version followed by another in English and Italian,
was directed by Jean Clair and Harold Szeemann. It was published in Venice in 1975 by Alfieri
Edizioni and H. Szeemann.
Goodbye! Indeed, we shall meet again.
On one condition: lets get divorced.
Nietzsche (to Strindberg)

Machinations
Franz Reuleaux defines the machine as a combination of resisting bodies, assembled in such a way that, by means of them and certain determinant motions, the mechanical forces of nature are obliged to do the
work. The mechanism of machines is insisted upon; thus Canguilhem:
assemblage of deformable parts with periodic restoration of the same
relations between parts; Reuleaux suggests another direction: this same
mechanism is a trap set for the forces of nature.
The interesting thing is not primarily that it perpetuates itself through
use, restoring its identity from one productive cycle to another and thus
determining a certain temporality; but that it is a trap, an apparatus that
lets us overturn relations of force. The machine is then neither an instrument nor a weapon, but an artifice, which is and which is not coupled
with nature: it is so coupled in that it does not work without capturing
and exploiting natural forces; it is not so coupled in that it plays a trick on
these forces, being itself less strong than they are, and making real this
monstrosity: that the less strong should be stronger than what is stronger.
With the idea of the Bachelor machines there is a blossoming out, in
full daylight, of this unconscious of cunning implied in the invention
of mechanisms that modern and contemporary technical thinking has
silenced in favor of dominating and possessing nature. The mchan of the
ancient Greeks is at once machination. Nothing but that.

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Dans la mcanique, le plus petit domine le plus grand , dit Aristote.

Voil quelque chose datopon et de thaumasion : qui na pas de lieu, et surprenant. Le renversement des forces ouvre un passage travers limpasse
dun rapport de forces trs dfavorable lhomme et trs favorable la
nature. Un pige ne peut pas servir deux fois. La machination ouvre une
temporalit capricieuse, faite dopportunits, discontinues, phmres,
que les Grecs nommaient kairos, le bon moment, linstant favorable. La
machine opportuniste est ncessairement une machine molle.
Bibl. : Lewis Mumford, Technique et civilisation, 1934, trad. fr. 1950 ; Franz Reuleaux,
Cinmatique. Principes fondamentaux dune thorie gnrale des machines, trad. fr. 1877 ;
Georges Canguilhem, Machine et organisme (1947), in La connaissance et la vie, 1952.

Rtorsions
La machination consiste retourner la direction, et donc limpact, des
forces. Aristote donne le mouvement du cercle en exemple, plus : en
principe, de toute mchan. Lextrmit A du diamtre dun cercle en
mouvement se meut dans une direction contraire lautre extrmit B :
celle-ci va vers le haut quand celle-l va vers le bas. Le point A dun
cercle tangent au premier en B sera entran dans la mme direction que
B, donc dans la direction inverse de A. Ce cercle transmet le mouvement
qui lanime, mais en inversant son sens. Le point de tangence est un
point limite o le mouvement se rtorque. La circonfrence du cercle,
lieu de ces points, est un limes dinversion du mouvement.
Le corps du pige contient ce limes en lui-mme : il a puissance de se
retourner, inversant son extrieur et son intrieur. Tel est dans la tradition
hellnique le renard qui retourne son corps alors que laigle se prcipite
sur lui ; ou le poulpe qui dplie ses organes intrieurs, les retourne
lextrieur, dpouillant son corps comme une chemise ; ou Herms qui,
ayant vol les vaches de son frre Apollon, brouille les traces en faisant
marcher le troupeau reculons.
Appartient aujourdhui la catgorie de ces corps non fiables, capables
de ces retournements, la main gante de Roberte que dessine la smiotique de Pierre Klossowski : car cest alors que le prtendant, usant
de sa force, dgante cette main dans lespoir de semparer de la chair
mme, que celle-ci lui chappe, parce que lapparition de lpiderme le
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In mechanics, the smaller dominates the larger, says Aristotle. This is

atopon and thaumasion: having no place, and giving surprise. The reversal
of forces opens a pathway through the impasse of a relation of forces that
is unfavorable to man and favorable to nature. A trap that cannot be used
twice. Machination opens up a capricious temporality, made of opportunities, discontinuous and ephemeral ones, a temporality that the Greeks
named kairos, the right moment, the favorable instant. The opportunist
machine is necessarily a soft machine.
Bibliography: Lewis Mumford, Technology and Civilization, 1934. Franz Reuleaux, Kinematics.
Fundamental Principles of a General Theory of Machines. Georges Canguilhem, Machine et
organisme, in La connaissance et la vie, 1952.

Retortions
Machination reverses the direction, and hence the impact, of forces.
Aristotle gives as an example the movement of a circle and, in principle,
the movement of any mchan. The extremity A of the diameter of a moving circle moves in a direction opposite to that of the other extremity B:
point B goes up when point A is going down. The point A of a circle at a
tangent to the first one at point B will be pulled in the same direction as
B, hence in the reverse direction to A. This circle transmits the movement
that animates it, but reverses its direction. The tangential point is a limit
point, where the movement is twisted back. The circumference of the
circle, the site of these points, is a limes of inversion of the movement.
The body of the trap contains this limes in itself: It has the power to
turn itself inside out, inverting its exterior and its interior. In the Hellenic
tradition the fox turns his body inside out when the eagle dives on him;
or the octopus, which unfurls its internal organs, turning them outwards, stripping off its body like a shirt; or Hermes who, having stolen
the cows of his brother Apollo, confuses the tracks by making the herd
walk backwards.
Today the category of these non-reliable bodies, capable of such twists
and turns, includes the gloved hand of Roberte as sketched by the semiotics of Pierre Klossowski: For its just when the aspirant, using his
strength, ungloves this hand in the hope of taking possession of the flesh
itself that the latter escapes, because the appearance of the epidermis
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mtamorphose, lui, le prdateur, en proie. De mme, la Diane dOvide

traque nue au bain par Acton, le commue en cerf et le fait forcer par
ses chiens.
Ces corps inverseur dnergie incorpor sont des machines clibataires ; leur clibat nest quun autre nom de leur ruse, clibat de lpouse
Roberte aussi bien que de la vierge Diane : cest toujours quand il y a
contact entre deux corps en mouvement, les deux cercles, les chasseurs et
les btes, les galants et leurs beaux objets, et quune prtention nat dun
ct les unir, les unifier en un seul corps anim du mme mouvement,
donc quand apparat le projet du couplage ou de la composition des
forces, cest alors que la rtorsion vient djouer cette prtention, dressant
entre les partenaires la paroi dissimilante.
La premire machine clibataire fut Pandore. La femme est un
automate construit par Hephastos, forgeron magicien qui fabrique des
trpieds automobiles pour les conseils des dieux, et des statues dor animes faisant fonction de servantes chez lui ; Herms de son ct, le dieu
du passage retors, a dot landrode de la parole, dun tour desprit
de chienne et dun style de drobade . Cest Zeus qui a pass commande de lautomate ; il entend faire payer le vol du feu Promthe
et aux hommes, les bnficiaires, en prouvant que son pouvoir divin de
machination lemporte sur la rouerie du hros. pimthe, celui-quicomprend-aprs, le double invers de son alter ego le rus, celui qui croit
pouser Pandore, est de ce fait la victime dsigne de ce stratagme, et le
genre humain aprs lui. Amchanos dolos, pige sans remde, pour lequel
il ny a pas de riposte.
On objectera que le tour jou par le matre de lOlympe nexige pas un
bien grand artifice, puisque les dieux sont par hypothse plus forts que
les hommes. Nanmoins en matire de mchan, les premiers sont sans
doute mieux partags que les seconds, mais non pas invulnrables : ils
succombent sans dfense aux charmes dAmour et de Sommeil ; et sils
chappent au pige amachinique par excellence, celui que tend la Mort,
Homre dit quils la hassent pourtant.
Non, le jeu de Zeus nest pas celui dun tout-puissant : na-t-il pas
lui-mme t surpris par Promthe ? Sa ruse ne vient-elle pas en second
lieu ? De fait il na pas eu linitiative, et Pandore nest quune riposte.
Machination des hommes, contre-machination des dieux : comme les
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metamorphoses him, the predator, into a prey. Likewise, Ovids Diana,

pursued by Actaeon while she is bathing naked, changes him into a stag
and has him hunted down by her hounds.
These bodies with an integral energy-inverter are Bachelor-machines;
their celibacy is only another name for their cunning, the celibacy of the
wife Roberte as much as of the virgin Diana: Its always when there is
contact between two bodies in movement, the two circles, the hunters and
the beasts, the suitors and their lovely objects, and when from one side
a claim arises to unite them, to unify them in one body animated by the
same movement, hence when the aim of coupling or of composing forces
appears, its then that retortion comes along to foil this claim, erecting the
dissimilating partition between the partners.
The first Bachelor machine was Pandora. The woman is an automaton constructed by Hephaestos, the magician-blacksmith who makes
auto-mobile tripods for the councils of the gods and animated golden
statues to act as servants at his house. Hermes for his part, the wily god
of change and transition, endowed the android with speech, with a shedogs cast of mind and with a side-stepping style. Then Zeus takes command of the automaton; he intends to make Prometheus and his beneficiaries, humanity, pay for the theft of fire by proving that his divine power
of machination gets the better of the slyness of their hero. Epimetheus,
he-who-understands-afterwards, the inverted double of his alter ego the
cunning one, he who thinks hes marrying Pandora, is thereby the designated victim of this stratagem, as is the human race after him. Amchanos
dolos, a trap without a remedy, a trap for which there is no riposte.
You will object that the trick played by the master of Olympus doesnt
require a great artifice the gods are by hypothesis stronger than men.
Nevertheless, when it comes to mchan the former are perhaps better
endowed than the latter, but they are still vulnerable: they succumb
without resistance to the charms of Love and Sleep; although they escape
Death (the non-machinelike trap par excellence), Homer says that they
hate Death nonetheless.
No, Zeuss game is not that of an omnipotent: wasnt he, after all, surprised by Prometheus? Doesnt his cunning come in second place? In fact he
didnt have the initiative, and Pandora is only a riposte. Machination of men,
counter-machination of the gods: like Aristotles two circles, the one sets
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deux cercles dAristote, lune met lautre en mouvement, contresens.

Cette fable annonce simplement que les hommes et les dieux ne forment
pas et ne peuvent former ensemble une unit, quils restent clibataires
les uns par rapport aux autres. Leurs ruses, bien loin de supprimer la
paroi de rtorsion qui les spare, la supposent et la confirment.
Bibl. : Aristote, Mchanica ; Jean-Pierre Vernant, Remarques sur les formes et les limites
de la pense technique chez les Grecs (1957), in Mythe et pense chez les Grecs, 1965 ;
Marcel Dtienne et Jean-Pierre Vernant, Les Ruses de lintelligence. La mtis des Grecs,
1974 ; Laurence Kahn, Herms passe, ou les ambiguts de la communication,[1978] ; Pierre
Klossowski, Les Lois de lhospitalit, 1965 ; Le Bain de Diane, 1956.

Dissoi logoi
Or nous avons un modle logique de la machinerie clibataire. (Mais
est-ce un modle ? Cette pense par modle, nest-elle pas lennemie de la
machination ?) Ce sont les sophistes grecs, les Protagoras, les Gorgias, les
Prodicos, les Antiphon, qui lont mont et mis au point. tout discours
doit sen opposer un autre rigoureusement parallle, mais allant conclusion contraire : la sophistique est dabord lart de bien tenir ces discours
duplices, dissoi logoi. Ainsi Protagoras enseigne prononcer lloge et le
blme sur un mme sujet. Ainsi la techn du rhteur Corax, rapporte par
Aristote, consiste renverser le sens de la vraisemblance : Soit le cas dun
homme qui ne donne pas prise laccusation : de faible constitution, il est
accus de svices ; sa culpabilit nest pas vraisemblable. Si maintenant il y
donne prise parce quil est fort, elle ne lest pas davantage : car il tait vraisemblable quon le crt coupable. Procd dont sindigne Aristote : Cest
l faire que la thse (logos) la plus faible soit la plus forte. Cest pourquoi les
gens avaient bien raison de sindigner de ce que professait Protagoras ; car
cest pur leurre (pseudos), vraisemblance apparente et non relle, qui nest
du ressort daucun art (techn) en dehors de la rhtorique et lristique.
Cette condamnation, cest laffaire centrale : lhomme de savoir prtend mettre fin la sophistique au nom du vrai, dun art de ce qui est
rellement vraisemblable, et enfin dune science. Ici commence la terreur,
cest--dire discours et actions commands par le dsir davoir le dernier mot et accompagns de conviction. la prudence raffine et apathique des discours dissimils, vient se substituer la grossire prtention
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the other moving, in the opposite direction. This fable announces simply
that men and gods do not form and cannot form a unity together, that they
remain celibate with respect to each other. Their tricks, far from suppressing
the partition of retortion that separates them, assumes it and confirms it.
Bibliography: Aristotle, Mchanica. Jean-Pierre Vernant, Remarques sur les formes et
les limites de la pense technique chez les Grecs, in Mythe et pense chez les Grecs, 2d edition, 1965. Marcel Dtienne and Jean-Pierre Vernant, Les Ruses de lintelligence. La mtis des
Grecs, 1974. Laurence Kahn, Herms passe, ou les ambiguts de la communication, 1978. Pierre
Klossowski, Les Lois de lhospitalit, 1965; Le Bain de Diane, 1956.

Dissoi logoi
Now we have a logical model of the Bachelor machinery. (But is it a
model? This thinking by means of models, isnt it the enemy of machination?) It was the Greek Sophists, the Protagorases, the Gorgiases, the
Prodicoses, the Antiphons, who assembled it and got it going. To every
discourse there must be another opposing it in a rigorously parallel manner,
but leading to the opposite conclusion: sophistics is above all the art of making these duplex/duplicitous speeches, dissoi logoi. Thus Protagoras teaches
how to pronounce praise and blame on the same subject. Thus the techn of
the rhetor Corax, reported by Aristotle, consists in turning upside down the
meaning of verisimilitude: For example the case of a man who is not open
to accusation: though of feeble constitution, he is accused of physical cruelty; his guilt is implausible. But if he gives the accusation a hold because he
is strong, his guilt is no more plausible than before: for it was plausible that
they should think him guilty. This procedure arouses Aristotles indignation: This is to make the weakest thesis (logos) be the strongest. Thats why
people were right to get angry with what Protagoras was professing; for its
a pure illusion (pseudos), apparent and not real plausibility, which does not
belong to any art (techn) outside of rhetoric and eristics.
This condemnation is the central business: the man of knowledge
claims to put an end to sophistics in the name of the true, of an art or
science of what is really plausible. Here begins the terror, i.e., discourses
and actions governed by the desire to have the last word, accompanied
by conviction. In place of the refined and apathic prudence of dissimilated discourses comes the gross pretension to a unique and total theory.
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la thorie unique et totale. La sophistique exige un espace-temps de la

parole et de la socit, politiques notamment, o la terreur du Vrai ou
Faux na pas de place, o lon na pas besoin de ces critres pour justifier
ce quon dit et fait, o lon ne juge que sur les effets.
Lhomme de savoir dit tout de ses prtentions unir les discours en
un couple ou un processus de couplage dclar suprieur (dialogue chez
Platon, dialectique chez Aristote), quand il croit rfuter lart des antilogies par largument quil faut bien, si lon veut conclure, disposer dune
mesure commune appliquer aux raisons pour et aux raisons contre, et
dun juge pour la dfinir et lappliquer. Nul meilleur juge, pense Platon,
que lensemble form par les interlocuteurs eux-mmes, condition quils
ne cherchent pas se vaincre lun lautre, mais se convaincre. Voil ladversaire de la machination clibataire, la conviction, un autre mot pour
le concubinage des dissemblables. Ltat, ltat des philosophes videmment, vient sriger en synthse des antilogies. Ainsi prennent position
les adversaires de la grande guerre dans laquelle nous sommes toujours
impliqus et dans laquelle nous avons choisir notre camp, comme le
firent Kafka, Jarry, Duchamp et Nietzsche : les sophistes contre les philosophes, les dissimilateurs contre les assimilateurs, les artistes contre
les raisonneurs, les machines clibataires contre la mcanique industrielle, les partisans de la paroi contre ceux de sa prtendue suppression
(Aufhebung). Cest toute machine totalisatrice et unificatrice, que ce soit
en matire de technique (au sens contemporain du mot), de langage ou
de politique, que la mchan vise dsorganiser et, si possible, djouer.
Cest ainsi que les russ peuvent se parer du nom de leurs ennemis :
Une nouvelle race de philosophes monte lhorizon : je [Nietzsche]
me hasarde les baptiser dun nom qui ne va pas sans danger, tels que
je les pressens, tels quils se laissent pressentir [], ces philosophes de
lavenir voudraient avoir le droit, peut-tre aussi le tort dtre appels des
tentateurs []. supposer que la vrit soit femme, na-t-on pas lieu de
souponner que tous les philosophes, pour autant quils furent dogmatiques, nentendaient pas grand chose aux femmes []. Certes elle ne
sest pas laisse sduire.
Bibl. : Aristote, Rhtorique ; Jacqueline de Romilly, Histoire et raison chez Thucydide, 1956 ;
Mario Untersteiner, I Sofisti, 1967 ; Friedrich Nietzsche, Par-del le bien et le mal (1886), tr.
fr. 1971.
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Sophistics requires a space-time of speech and of society, especially political speech and society, where the terror of the True or the False has no
place, where one has no need of these criteria to justify what one says and
does, where one judges things only by their effects.
The man of knowledge says everything about his pretensions to unify
the discourses in a couple or a process of coupling that he declares to
be superior (that of dialogue, in Plato; dialectic, in Aristotle), when he
thinks he is refuting the art of antilogies by saying that, if you want to
come to a conclusion, you have to apply a common measure to the reasons for and against, and a judge to define and apply it. No better judge,
thinks Plato, than the ensemble formed by the interlocutors themselves,
on condition that they seek to convince, not to defeat, each other. There
is the adversary of Bachelor machination, conviction, another word for
the concubinage of dissimilars. The State, the State of the philosophers
obviously, comes along to set itself up as the synthesis of the antilogies.
Thus are the positions taken by the adversaries in the Great War in which
we are still involved and in which we have to choose which camp to be
in, as did Kafka, Jarry, Duchamp and Nietzsche: the Sophists against the
Philosophers, the dissimilators against the assimilators, the artists
against the reasoners, the Bachelor machines against industrial mechanics, the partisans of the partition-wall against those who claim to suppress it (Aufhebung). What the mchan aims to disorganize and, if possible,
to foil, is any totalizing and unifying machine, whether in the area of
technology (in the contemporary meaning of the word) or of language or
of politics. Thus it is that the cunning ones can bear the names of their
enemies: A new race of philosophers is coming up over the horizon: I
[Nietzsche] make so bold as to baptise them with a name which is not
without danger, such as I anticipate them, such as they let themselves be
anticipated [] These philosophers of the future would like to have the
right, perhaps also the wrong, of being called tempters [] Assuming that
the truth is a woman, havent we got good grounds to suspect that all the
philosophers, inasmuch as they were dogmatic, did not understand very
much about women? [] And certainly she has not let herself be seduced.
Bibliography: Aristotle, Rhetoric. Jacqueline de Romilly, Histoire et raison chez Thucydide, 1956.
Mario Untersteiner, I Sofisti, 1967. Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 1886.

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Incongruences
Nous aimons regarder le monde [disent les tentateurs] avec toutes
sortes dyeux, et aussi avec des yeux de sphinx ; quune chose vue de
travers prenne un tout autre air quon ne pouvait le supposer aussi longtemps quon la considrait de face, cela fait partie des belles surprises
pour lamour desquelles il vaut la peine dtre philosophe.
La machine apparemment la plus fidle, la machine mimtique ou
reproductrice par excellence, la paroi de verre rflchissante ou enregistreuse : quelle injustice lui a t faite par loptique et la gomtrie des
dogmatiques, elle qui ne recle pas moins de machinations et de rtorsions dans sa minceur biface que les deux cercles dAristote dans leur
simplicit, pas moins dobliquit sductrice que nen exige la vue des
nouveaux philosophes !
La paroi dun miroir est une machine alimente par les objets quon
lui prsente, et qui produit dautres objets, les images quelle rflchit. Le
regardeur est lusager de cette machine. Or le produit diffre de lobjet
prsent par deux proprits : sa distance apparente, sauf exception, et
sa position.
Quant celle-ci, Kant montre que le miroir plan, ou plus gnralement la symtrie par rapport un plan dans lespace tridimensionnel (ou
par rapport une droite dans lespace bidimensionnel), si elle garantit
bien la similitude des deux objets, les affecte dune proprit curieuse,
quil nomme leur incongruence ; ainsi la main droite peut bien tre semblable et symtrique la gauche en tous ses points, elles nen sont pas
moins insuperposables lune lautre : impossible de passer un gant droit
la main gauche. Il en est de mme des deux moitis dun corps humain,
seraient-elles parfaitement semblables.
Mais, ajoute le philosophe, il suffit dappliquer un miroir le long de
laxe vertical de ce corps pour que la moiti prsente au miroir produise, sous les espces de son image rflchie, un pendant pleinement
congruent (superposable) lautre moiti. Si limage spculaire de la main
droite est une main gauche, limage de cette image est une main droite.
Telle est donc la singularit des machines spculaires que le montage en
srie de deux dentre elles permet dannuler la diffrence de position des
effets : on aura ainsi une suite de produits spculaires dont chacun sera

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Incongruences
We like to look at the world [say the tempters] with all sorts of eyes, and
also with Sphinxs eyes; that when viewed sideways a thing takes on quite
a different look from what you could have supposed it would as long as
you were looking at it from the front. Its one of the nice surprises for the
love of which its worth the trouble of being a philosopher.
The machine that appears to be the most faithful one, the mimetic
or reproductive machine par excellence, is the partition of reflecting or
recording glass: What injustice has been done to it by the optics and the
geometry of the dogmatics, to it, the machine that keeps hidden in its
two-faced slenderness no fewer machinations and retortions than the two
circles of Aristotle in their simplicity and no less seductive obliqueness
than is demanded by the gaze, or view, of the new philosophers!
The partition wall of a mirror is a machine fed by the objects that are
presented to it and that produces other objects, the images that it reflects.
The looker is the user of this machine. Now the product differs from
the presented object in two properties: its apparent distance, except for
exceptions, and its position.
As for its position, Kant shows that the plane mirror, or more generally
the symmetry with regard to a plane in tri-dimensional space (or with
regard to a straight line in bi-dimensional space), though it guarantees
well the similitude of the two objects, charges them with a curious property, which he names their incongruence; thus the right hand can be similar and symmetrical to the left in all its points, but they are nonetheless
non-superimposable on each other: its impossible to put a right glove
on a left hand. The same goes for the two halves of a human body, even if
they were perfectly similar.
But, adds the philosopher, it is enough to apply a mirror along the
vertical axis of this body in order to make the half presented to the mirror produce, in the form of its reflected image, an appendage that is fully
congruent (superimposable) on the other half. If the specular image of
the right hand is a left hand, the image of this image is a right hand. Such
is therefore the singularity of specular machines, that by assembling two
of them in series you can annul the difference of position of the effects:
thus you will have a succession of specular products of which each will be

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incongruent ou congruent au modle selon quil vient respectivement en

rang impair ou en rang impair dans la suite.
La machine spculaire est, quant la position de ses effets, identifiante
quand elle est elle-mme double (leve une puissance paire), mais
dissimilante quand elle fonctionne seule ou monte avec elle-mme en
quantits impaires. On observera que la fonction premire nomme, que
nous appellerons assimilante ou spculaire met en jeu trois objets : lobjet
prsent au premier miroir, son image dans celui-ci, et limage de cette
image dans le deuxime miroir ; au contraire les deux premiers suffisent
la fonction dissimilatrice pour sexercer : cest cette dernire que Marcel
Duchamp appelle miroirique.
La nature du produit final de la srie des miroirs dpend dune dcision
portant sur le nombre, pair ou impair, de ceux-ci. Telle est la solution que
le Socrate de Platon, puis Hegel proposent aux dissoi logoi des sophistes :
en rester aux doubles discours nous maintient dans lincongruence, il faut,
dit le philosophe, les tiercer pour parvenir lunit des thses contraires.
On en dirait autant des cercles en mouvement : un troisime cercle tangent au second tourne dans le mme sens que le premier. Les parois, qui
dans ce cas sont les contacts tangentiels, sont alors au nombre de deux.
Couple de la fonction spculaire, clibat de la miroirique.
Bibl. : Emmanuel Kant, Du premier fondement de la diffrence des rgions dans lespace (1768), tr. fr. 1970.

Anamorphoses
Une plaque de verre transparent peut tre utilise comme un miroir.
Lonard en propose cet usage au peintre, dans les Carnets : une fois lobjet, vu travers elle, relev sa surface, le calque est report sur un support
opaque, o est alors dessine limage de lobjet. Si le peintre applique sur
le support la face de la plaque qui tait tourne vers le modle, si donc
il opre une translation dans un plan, le modle et son calque seront
congruents puisque celui-ci est construit par superposition ; sil fait subir
la plaque une rotation autour dun axe vertical par exemple, calquant
cette fois-ci sur le support lautre face de la plaque, limage ne sera pas
superposable au modle dans le plan : cette rotation du mdium est
lanalogue de lopration miroirique. Donc ici aussi deux usages de la
paroi, dissimilateur et assimilateur.
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incongruent or congruent with the model according to whether it comes

in an even or odd rank, respectively, in the series.
The specular machine is, with regard to the position of its effects, identifying when it is itself doubled (raised to an even power), but dissimilating
when it functions alone or when assembled with itself in uneven quantities.
You will observe that the first-named function, which we will call assimilating or specular, puts three objects in play: the object presented to the first
mirror, its image in the latter, and the image of this image in the second mirror; for the dissimilating function to be exercised, on the contrary, the first
two are sufficient: it is this latter function that Duchamp calls mirrorish.
The nature of the final product of the series of mirrors depends on a
decision about the number, odd or even, of the mirrors. Such is the solution that the Socrates of Plato, and later Hegel, proposes for the dissoi
logoi of the Sophists: the double discourses keep us in a state of incongruence, so we must, says the philosopher, find thirds for them in order to
arrive at the unity of contrary theses. You could say the same about circles
in motion: a third circle at a tangent to the second will turn in the same
direction as the first. The partitions, which are the tangential contacts, are
thus two in number: the couple of the specular function and the celibacy
of the mirrorish function.
Bibliography: Immanuel Kant, Of the First Foundation of the Difference of Regions in Space (1768).

Anamorphoses
A transparent pane of glass can be used as a mirror. Leonardo suggests this
to painters, in his Notebooks: The object, seen through the pane, is drawn on
the glass surface. The drawing is then transferred to an opaque support,
set upright like the glass. Now, the two images are congruent superimpositions. However, if you now rotate the pane around a vertical axis and trace
the image on the opaque support, the images will not be superimposable.
This rotation is the analogue of the mirrorish operation. As you see, the
partition functions in two ways: to dissimilate and to assimilate.

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Les perspecteurs raffinent la fonction spculaire proprement dite, cest-dire identitaire. Les quatre machines graves sur bois par Drer, destines
guider le dessin de portraits, de natures mortes, de nus, travaillent pareillement lidentification, la Vergleichung. Ce sont des machines de rglage
du relev, qui doivent dterminer surtout la distance apparente, en fixant
nergiquement les points de vision et de distance par des mentonnires, des
illres, des gaines, des viseurs et des rseaux. Quant la position du produit (limage), on ne stonne pas quil soit congruent au modle, ce prix.
Sur ces portillons , on voit mieux ce que demande le fonctionnement assimilateur des parois limites : ne pourra tre relev, report et
rpliqu que lobjet qui aura t fix et riv par la machine scopique
conformment non pas lui-mme, mais aux principes de reproduction
selon lesquels elle a t construite et qui sont ceux de loptique euclidienne simplifie.
Pourtant les chercheurs danamorphoses, comme Nicron et Maignan,
ont fait marcher le portillon de Drer en dissimilation, lenvers :
au lieu de projeter lobjet rel sur le battant mobile du portillon, ils
fixent sur celui-ci limage de cet objet qui sera projete sur un plan non
pas parallle, mais oblique celui du portillon. Et au lieu de placer les
droites de fuite et de distance dans des plans orthogonaux lun lautre,
ils les rapprochent presque les confondre.
Ici la machine dissimile ouvertement. Lcart positionnel entre ce qui
y entre et ce qui en sort rend le produit mconnaissable. (Bien entendu
il suffirait ici aussi dajouter un deuxime dispositif anamorphique fonctionnant linverse du premier pour restituer loriginal dans son identit.) La ruse tient ce que la dtermination des points et des lignes
qui commandent lopration nest pas moins mticuleuse que dans la
construction lgitime , que le corps du regardeur nest pas moins corset ; mais pour obtenir un effet contraire.
Bibl. : Lonard de Vinci, Carnets (1508), tr. fr. 1952 ; Jurgis Baltrusaitis, Anamorphoses, ou
magie artificielle des effets merveilleux, 1969.

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The practitioners of perspective refine the specular, or identitory,

function. The machines engraved by Drer intended to guide the drawing of portraits, still lifes, and nudes are organs that work parallel to
Vergleichung, or identification. They are machines that regulate what we
see and what we transcribe for seeing. Above all, the apparatuses must
be able to determine visual distance. To accomplish this, the machines
employ chinstraps, eyecups, sheaths, visors, and lattices. Given all this
paraphernalia, its not surprising that the product (image) appears congruent with the model.
On these grids you see better what is demanded by the assimilatory
functioning of the limit partitions: The only thing that can be noted
down, carried over, and replicated is the object that has been fixed and
riveted by the scopic machine in conformity not with the object but with
the principles of reproduction according to which the machine was built,
which are those of a simplified Euclidean geometry.
And yet the seekers of anamorphoses, such as Nicron and Maignan,
made Drers grid work in reverse to produce dissimilation: instead of
projecting the real object on the movable panel of the grid, they fix on
this panel the image of this object projected onto a plane that is not parallel but oblique to that of the grid. And instead of placing the straight lines
of flight and distance in planes that are orthogonal to each other, they
bring them close so as nearly to confuse them.
Here the machine dissimilates openly. The shift of position between
what goes into it and what comes out of it makes the product open to
misrecognition. (Of course it would be enough here to add to the first a
second anamorphic apparatus functioning in reverse to restore the original in its identity.) The trick consists in the way the determination of the
points and lines that govern the operation is not less meticulous than in
the legitimate construction in the way the spectators body is no less
corseted, but in order to obtain an opposite effect.
Bibliography: Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks, (1508). Jurgis Baltrusaitis, Anamorphoses,
ou magie artificielle des effets merveilleux, 1969.

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Charnires
Le continu n dim est essentiellement le miroir du continu 3 dim .
Le Grand Verre de Duchamp est une machine anamorphique moderne,
incluant en elle les possibilits de ruse nouvelle et de clibat improbable
que donnent les gomtries non-euclidiennes. II ne sagit plus seulement
dincongruence entre des figures, mais entre des espaces.
Le Grand Verre est travers en son milieu par une paroi duplice analogue celle qui spare les dissoi logoi des sophistes. Cette paroi nest pas
visible par lil adapt lespace tridimensionnel, sauf comme ligne :
Il est certain que tout point de lespace3 masque, cache, est laboutissant dune ligne de ltendue. On voudrait tourner autour de ce point et
apercevoir cette 4 direction qui arrive ( ce point) au contact de lespace3
Une ligne dun espace3 masque aussi bien un plan ; cest comme la
tranche de ce plan seule visible pour lil3 (DDS, 135).
La ligne qui spare le haut et le bas du Grand Verre serait la tranche
dun plan. Ce plan figure la charnire entre deux espaces tridimensionnels virtuels, celui des Clibataires et celui de la Marie : dans lespace
3-dim, lintersection de deux volumes est un plan ; mais dans lespace
bidimensionnel, que constitue la surface du Grand Verre, comme de tout
tableau, ce plan est projet sous lapparence dune ligne, celle qui spare
les rgions du haut et du bas.
Le Verre serait ainsi un miroir deux faces, ayant pour charnire la
ligne qui le traverse en son milieu : tel il se prsente dans lespace bidimensionnel. Mais chacune des faces ouvre sur un espace tridimensionnel
virtuel : cube perspectiviste enfermant les mcaniques clibataires en bas,
espace plus complexe, plus libre (mais encore tridimensionnel), o sont
suspendus en haut le Pendu femelle et la Voie lacte. Ces deux faces
se regardent ou du moins se sont regardes, avant dtre amenes, par
rotation autour de la charnire du milieu, sur un mme plan, celui du
Verre ; les deux espaces virtuels se rflchissent donc (maris), mais leur
incongruence est forte (clibataires).
Si forte quelle ne peut pas tre supprime par une opration de rplication comme celle que Kant suggrait pour rendre superposables les
deux moitis dun corps humain. Ou plutt on peut concevoir cette opration, mais non en voir les effets. Car la rduction dune incongruence
entre des volumes exigerait quon dispose dune quatrime dimension,
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Hinges
The continuum with n dimensions is essentially the mirror of the continuum with 3 dimensions. Duchamps Large Glass is a modern anamorphic machine, including in itself the possibilities of new cunning and of
improbable celibacy given by non-Euclidean geometries. Its no longer
only a question of incongruence between figures, but between spaces.
The Large Glass is traversed in the middle by a duplex partition analogous to the one that separates the dissoi logoi of the Sophists. This partition
is not visible to the eye adapted to tri-dimensional space, except as a line:
It is certain that any point of space3 masks, hides, and is the end-point of
a line of extension. One would like to turn around this point and perceive
this 4th direction which arrives (at this point) in contact with space3
likewise a line of a space3 masks a plane; its like the one and only slice of
this plane to be visible to the eye3 (DDS, 135).
The line that separates the top and the bottom of the Large Glass would
be the slice of a plane. This plane represents the hinge between two
tri-dimensional virtual spaces, that of the Bachelors and that of the Bride:
in the 3-dim space, the intersection of two volumes is a plane; but in bidimensional space, as constituted by the surface of the Large Glass and
likewise by any picture, this plane is projected under the appearance of a
line, the one that separates the top and bottom regions.
The Glass would thus be a mirror with two faces, having as its hinge
the line that crosses it in the middle: this is how it presents itself in bidimensional space. But each of the faces opens on a virtual tri-dimensional space: a perspectivist cube enclosing the Bachelor mechanisms
down below, and a more complex, freer (but still tri-dimensional) space
above, where the Pendu femelle and the Milky Way are suspended. These
two faces look at each other, or at least did look at each other, before being
brought, by rotation, around the hinge in the middle, onto one and the
same plane, that of the Glass. The two virtual spaces thus reflect each
other (they are married), but are strongly incongruent (they are celibate).
So strong is their incongruence that it cannot be suppressed by an operation of replication like the one that Kant suggests as a way of making the
two halves of a human body superimposable. Or rather, one can conceive
of this operation but not see its effects. For the removal of an incongruence between volumes would require that you have at your disposal a
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celle que pourrait suggrer un miroir tridimensionnel ; soit une glace

trois faces qui se rflchissent lune lautre. Ce quest galement le Verre,
avec ses trois lignes transversales. Cette configuration ne veut pas dire que
Marie et Clibataires, les deux parties de luvre, sont spares jamais,
ni davantage quils peuvent sunir dans un espace virtuel. II y a entre eux
la mme paroi qui conjoint et disjoint les discours antithtiques.
Comme il ny a pas de troisime instance pour synthtiser raisonnablement les logoi sophistiques, il ny a pas de quatrime dimension pour faire
se superposer visiblement les volumes clibataires aux volumes maris.
Mais comme il est juste de soutenir les deux thses et sage de sen laisser
galement persuader, il est sensible de piger le quadridimensionnel avec du
bidimensionnel et de prsenter en composition ce qui est incompossible.
Bibl. : Marcel Duchamp (Arturo Schwarz dit.), Notes and Projects for the Large Glass, 1969 ;
(Sanouillet et Peterson dit.), Duchamp du signe, 1975.

Tortures
Cora aime une femme F. B., que prostitue un homme sans nom, Celui
qui recevait . II a oblig dabord F. B. pisser dans la cuvette des WC
en prsence de Cora. Plus tard, dans les toilettes de la maison de rendezvous, il a pri Cora de tenir, audessus de son visage, la plaque de verre
quon lui tendait . Il a ordonn F. B. de pisser et de chier sur cette
plaque. Cora a pens quils ne lempcheraient pas daimer F. B. cause
de a, cause deux.
Telle est la ruse de la dissimilation face la terreur, lassimilation, qui
veut obtenir la congruence, et transformer le miroirique en spculaire :
Tandis que F. B. se lavait, Celui qui recevait a demand Cora duser,
son tour, de la plaque de verre au-dessus du visage de F. B. Rendre
superposables les deux femmes, toutes les femmes, voil ce quexigent
le maquereau et le philosophe-politique, alors que lamour singulier de
lune pour lautre justement les rend inconvertibles.
Cora refuse, on la bat, elle finit par tre place sur la plaque ; mais
au lieu de F. B., cest un client qui se poste au-dessous. De nouveau la
paroi transparente a fonctionn comme une machine clibataire : tenant
lcart celles qui sy sont entre-regardes. Et cest la mme plaque qui
vaut pour lamante et pour le Grand Duplicateur, mais autrement.
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fourth dimension, one that might be suggested by a tri-dimensional mirror,

for instance, a mirror with three faces that all reflect one another. And the
Glass is also this, with its three transverse lines. This configuration does not
mean that Bride and Bachelors, the two parts of the work, are separated forever, nor that they can be united in a virtual space. There is between them the
same partition wall that conjoins and disjoins antithetical discourses.
Just as there is no third instance to make sensible syntheses out of the
sophistic logoi, there is no fourth dimension to make the Bachelor volumes
superimpose themselves visibly on the married volumes. But as it is just to
defend both theses and wise to let yourself be equally persuaded by them both,
so it is sensible* to trap the quadri-dimensional with something bi-dimensional
and to present as composed together that which refuses composition.
Bibliography: Marcel Duchamp (Arturo Schwarz edition), Notes and Projects for the Large Glass, 1969.
Sanouillet and Peterson, editors, Duchamp du signe, 1975.

Tortures
Cora loves a woman F.B., who is prostituted by a man with no name, the one
who received. He obliged F.B. at first to piss in the toilet bowl in the presence
of Cora. Later, in the toilets of the brothel, he asked Cora to hold, over her
face, the pane of glass held out to her. He ordered F.B. to piss and shit on this
pane. Cora thought that they would not stop her from loving F.B. because of
that, because of them.
Such is the cunning of dissimilation in the face of terror, of assimilation,
that wants to get congruence and to transform the mirrorish into the specular: While F.B. was washing, He who received asked Cora to use, in her turn,
the pane of glass over the face of F.B. To make the two women, all women,
superimposable, is what both the pimp and the philosopher-politician
demand, whereas the singular love of the one for the other makes them, precisely, non-convertible.
Cora refuses, she gets beaten, she ends up being put on the pane of glass,
but instead of F.B., its a client who takes up his position under it. Once again
the transparent pane has acted as a celibacy machine: holding apart those
who looked at each other in it. And its the same pane that counts for the lover
and for the Great Duplicator, but in a different way.

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Toutes les questions de pouvoir et de non-pouvoir, quelque nom

quelles portent, tiennent au fonctionnement de cette paroi. La ruse se
sert du spculaire et du reproductif, rouages de terreur assimilatrice, pour
engendrer du dissemblable, pour inventer des singularits.
Bibl. : Xavire, F.B., 1970.

Fvrier 1975

Machinations
Ce texte a fourni la base dun expos fait la Maison Franaise de Columbia University
New York en novembre 1974.

Mcanique dissimilante
Interprter est futile. Autant vouloir circonscrire le vritable effet du
Grand Verre, et donc sa vritable teneur ; le Verre est prcisment fait pour
navoir pas un effet vrai, ni mme quelques effets vrais, selon une logique
mono- ou polyvalente, mais des effets incontrls ; or le vrai nest que le
contrlable, comme le faux, alors que Duchamp vise un espace par-del
les valeurs de vrit : impouvoir et puissance.
Toute interprtation vient creuser son objet lintrieur, vient substituer ce quil est cens cacher ce quil est suppos manifester. Ainsi elle se
nourrit de nihilisme, et le nourrit. Or quand Duchamp dit : ma Marie
est une projection en surface plane dune marie tridimensionnelle, qui
son tour est la projection dune marie quadridimensionnelle, loin
de suggrer une construction en abyme, un abme de signes seffaant
lun devant lautre, il ouvre au contraire un groupe despaces o seront
prsentes, visuellement ou non, toutes ces maries et dautres : espaces
des mtamorphoses dissimilantes. Cest pourquoi il parle machine et
peint machine : limportant tant que des figures de forces soient
transformes trangement.
La position de Duchamp est affirmative. II la situe lui-mme comme
ironisme daffirmation . Feindra-t-on que toute ironie implique ngation ?
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All the questions of power and non-power, whatever name they bear,
stem from the functioning of this partition. The trick is to use the specular and the reproductive, those mechanisms of assimilatory terror, to
engender something dissimilar, to invent singularities.
Bibliography: Xavire, F.B., 1970.

February 1975

Machinations
This text formed the basis of a paper presented at the Maison Franaise at
Columbia University in New York in November 1974.

Dissimilating mechanics
To interpret is futile. You might as well try to circumscribe the true effect
of the Large Glass and hence its true content; the Glass is made precisely
in order not to have a true effect, nor even several true effects, according
to a mono-, or polyvalent logic, but to have uncontrolled effects; the true
is only the controllable, like the false, whereas Duchamp is aiming for a
space beyond truth-values: inability and power.
Any interpretation comes along and hollows out its object from the
inside, comes along and substitutes what the object is supposed to hide
for what its assumed to manifest. Thus interpretation feeds on nihilism,
and feeds nihilism. But when Duchamp says: my Bride is a projection
onto a plane surface of a tri-dimensional Bride, who, in turn, is the projection of a quadri-dimensional Bride, far from suggesting a construction en
abyme, an abyss of signs each effacing itself before the next, he opens, on
the contrary, a group of spaces where all these Brides, and others, will be
present, whether visually or not: spaces of dissimilating metamorphoses.
That is why he talks machine and paints machine: the important
thing being that figures of forces should be transformed strangely.
Duchamps position is affirmative. He situates it himself as ironism
of affirmation. Shall we pretend that all irony implies negation? But the
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Mais laffirmation dont il sagit nexclut pas la ngation comme si elle

tait son contraire ; si laffirmation est ironique, cest quelle inclut la
sparation, la distance, le regret et la jalousie : et tout cela est penser
affirmativement, comme des puissances. Dans cette direction, Spinoza
serait un bon guide sil ntait lui aussi victime de la hirarchisation nihiliste des passions et des connaissances ; mais imaginons des tristesses non
moins puissantes, panouies et zles que le sont les gaiets. Duchamp
aime les machines parce quelles nont pas de got ni de sentiment : pour
leur anonymat, qui ne garde, ne capitalise rien des forces quelles vhiculent et transforment, et supprime la question de lauteur et de lautorit ;
et il les aime parce quelles ne se rptent pas, chose plus trange des
esprits pntrs de lquation : mcanique = rplication. Pas dassimilation dans les causes, et pas dans les effets.
Sa mcanique est dissimilante, elle nappartient pas aux choses du pouvoir, aux politiques, aux techniques. Cest la mcanique de la machination. Elle a pour effets non des tres reconnaissables et ainsi consommables, mais des inventions singulires, mconnaissables, qui supposent
lexercice dune facult de ruse. Cette ruse naccumule pas ses rsultats,
elle nest pas la grosse ruse de la raison, dont les tours dialectiques seraient
flairs et djous par un chiot, tant ils se rptent consciencieusement, et
qui dfinissent, on le sait, non un labyrinthe, mais un empire (celui du
capital, en dernier). Les machines ruses ne sont pas productives, elles
ne sont pas tablies. Si on peut les dire clibataires, ce nest srement pas
parce quil faudrait avoir perdu Dieu et sa loi pour les concevoir, sen
servir et mme pour se faire elles ; mais en hommage leur inanit. Et
quon se souvienne que les machines de Duchamp ne sont pas seulement
clibataires, mais aussi maries.
Logique dischronique
Il ny a pas de problmes, les problmes sont des inventions de lesprit ,
dclare Duchamp Rudi Blesh. Les machineries ou les inventions qui
se trament dans les cervellits de Duchamp ne sont pas des rponses
des questions. Les rponses sont le fait des machines de pouvoir :
Comment permettre un client qui a les deux bras chargs douvrir une
porte de supermarch ? Cellule photo-lectrique. Comment permettre
un avion de n tonnes de dcoller ? Feedback en acclration sur les
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affirmation in question does not exclude negation as if it were its opposite;

if the affirmation is ironical, its because it includes separation, distance,
regret, and jealousy: and all these things must be thought of affirmatively,
as potencies. In this direction, Spinoza would be a good guide if he was
not himself also the victim of the nihilist hierarchization of passions and
knowledge; but let us imagine sadnesses that are no less potent, opened
out, and zealous than happinesses are. Duchamp likes machines because
they have no taste and no feelings. He likes them for their anonymity,
which keeps nothing and capitalizes on nothing of the forces that they
articulate and transform, and suppresses the question of the author and
of authority; and he likes them because they do not repeat themselves, an
even stranger thing for minds penetrated by the equation: mechanics =
replication. No assimilation in the causes and none in the effects.
His mechanics is dissimilating; it does not belong to the things of
power, to politicians, to technicians. Its the mechanics of machination.
Its effects are not recognizable and thus consumable beings, but singular,
misrecognizable inventions, which presuppose the exercise of a faculty
of cunning. This cunning does not accumulate its results. It is not the
gross cunning of reason, whose dialectical tricks would be sniffed out and
foiled by a puppy, so conscientiously do they repeat themselves and that
define, as we know, not a labyrinth, but an empire (that of capital, latterly). The cunning machines are not productive; they are not established.
If we could call them celibate, its certainly not because you have to have
lost God and his law to conceive them, to use them, and even to make
them for yourself; rather, its in homage to their pointlessness. And let
us remember that Duchamps machines are not only bachelors, but also
married.
Dischronic logic
There are no problems, problems are inventions of the mind, declares
Duchamp to Rudi Blesh. The machineries or inventions that are hatched
in Duchamps brainishnesses are not answers to these questions. The
answers are the deed of the power-machines: How to allow a client who
has both hands full to open a supermarket door? A photo-electric cell.
How to allow an airplane of n tons to take off? Acceleration feedback to
the engines. How to control opinion when the political parties are boring?
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racteurs. Comment contrler une opinion quand les partis politiques

lennuient ? Tlvision. Comment fonder, cest--dire autoriser, la scientificit dun discours ? Vracit divine ; universalit a priori.
Les machines de Duchamp ne sont pas asservies-assertives, mais spontanes-affirmatives, elles ne connaissent aucune conscution. Cette proprit sannonce a contrario dans le langage de Duchamp sous le dehors
de limplication : tant donns : 1 la chute deau, 2 le gaz dclairage
() (DDS, 43)1 dont on connat lavenir ; ou lune des rares pseudoconfidences des Notes : tant donn que ; si je suppose que je sois
souffrant beaucoup (DDS, 36) ; ou lIde de la fabrication (ibid.) :
si un fil droit horizontal dun mtre de longueur tombe / dun mtre
de hauteur sur un plan horizontal / en se dformant son gr et donne /
une figure nouvelle de lunit de longueur , qui poursuit : 3 exemplaires obtenus dans des conditions / peu prs semblables / : dans leur
considration chacun chacun / sont une reconstitution approche de lunit
de longueur. // Les 3 stoppages talon sont le mtre diminu.
Limplication est incomplte, il y manque lnonc impliqu. Mme la
proposition 3 exemplaires ne rsulte pas de lhypothse si un fil droit
horizontal ; il sagit dune tautologie. Une implication formellement
correcte serait : si un fil droit horizontal (etc.), en se dformant son
gr, il donne une figure nouvelle (etc.) . Est-ce une dfaillance logique ?
Plutt une petite machinerie de langage qui consiste poser un tat de
fait comme si lon allait en tirer des consquences, puis ne pas les tirer.
Sil en est ainsi, cest que les effets de cet tat ne sont pas dterminables
partir de laction de le poser. Le pouvoir, y compris le pouvoir-faire,
consiste entirement dans une puissance qui contrle ses effets ; limplication est lquivalent logique de ce contrle. Que la puissance positionnelle ne contienne aucun oprateur dimplication, les effets quand ils
se produiront non seulement apparatront sans cause, dnus de raison,
mais ils le seront proprement.
1

Dans cette partie du texte, les notes sont cites daprs ldition en fac-simil tablie par Arturo Schwarz,
Notes and Projects for the Large Glass, Abrams, New York, 1969. Pour la commodit du lecteur, on a rtabli
les rfrences ldition franaise de Sanouillet, note DDS. Le lecteur constatera quelques divergences de
lectures. Le signe / indique un passage la ligne dans le manuscrit, le signe // un passage la ligne avec alina
marqu, litalique ce qui est soulign dans le manuscrit.

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Television. How to found, that is, to authorize, the scientificity of a discourse? Divine veracity; a priori universality.
Duchamps machines are not enslaved-assertive but spontaneousaffirmative: they know no consequence. This property becomes evident
a contrario in Duchamps language under the exterior of implication:
Given: 1 the waterfall, 2 the illuminating [lamplight] gas (DDS, 43)1
whose future we know about; or one of the rare pseudo-confessions in the
Notes: given that if I assume that I am suffering much (DDS, 36); or
the Idea of fabrication (ibid.): If a straight horizontal thread one metre
long falls / from a height of one metre on to a horizontal plane, / deforming itself at its own free will and gives / a new figure of the unit of length,
which goes on: 3 copies obtained in conditions / that are almost similiar / : in their consideration each for each / are an approximate reconstitution of
the unit of length. // The 3 standard stoppages are the diminished metre.
The implication is incomplete; the implied statement is missing. Even
the proposition 3 copies does not result from the hypothesis if a
straight horizontal thread; its a tautology. A formally correct implication would be If a horizontal straight thread (etc.), deforming itself at its
own free will, it gives a new figure (etc.). Is this a logical flaw?
Rather a little machinery of language that consists in positing a state of
fact as if you were going to draw some consequences from it, and then not
drawing them. If thats how things are, its because the effects of this state
are not determinable on the basis of the act of positing it. The power-todo consists entirely of a potency that controls its effects; implication is
the logical equivalent of this control. For positional potency to contain no
operator of implication, the effects when produced will not only appear
to be without cause, denuded of reason, but they will strictly be so.

In this part of the text, the notes are quoted from the facsimile edition established by
Arturo Schwarz, Notes and Projects for the Large Glass, New York, Abrams, 1969. For the
convenience of the reader, we have restored the references to the French edition of Sanouillet, noted as DDS. The reader will notice some divergences in the readings. The
sign / indicates a new line in the manuscript; the sign // indicates a new line with a
paragraph marker; italics indicate what is emphasized in the manuscript.

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Le si, alors de limplication conduit lier des moments diffrents, celui

de lhypothse et celui de la proposition conscutive : il fait construire
un temps homogne que requiert la causalit ou toute autre catgorie
de ce genre. Mais lorsque Duchamp crit tant donn tout court
(comme un enfant se mettant rver sur la formulation dun problme
de robinet quil ne saurait pas faire, qui le plonge dans ltonnement et
lennui, une soire doctobre), lnonc se trouve plac dans un instant
qui est lui-mme son rfrentiel temporel propre ; et tout nonc que
lon croirait en tirer, bien loin dtre conscutif, doit tre pris lui-mme
comme un noyau temporel autonome, comme linstance dune puissance
qui donne champ une autre temporalit. On na donc pas de succession
ni de simultanit, mais des autochronies, qui nont entre elles de relation que de hasard, disons : de dischronie. Rien de lune ne passe dans
lautre. Chacun commence une histoire , qui est instantane. Aucune
ne rpond ou dune autre, ne rsout un problme ; lequel serait toujours, alors, un abus de pouvoir parce que contrainte de lune sur lautre.
Vision inoptique
La dcomposition du mouvement dans le Jeune homme triste ou le Nu
descendant un escalier relve du mme dsir de discronographier la dure.
Mon but tait, dit Duchamp Sweeney, une reprsentation statique du
mouvement une composition statique indiquant les diverses positions
que prend une forme en mouvement sans chercher produire aucun
effet de cinma par la peinture. 2 Mais dans les uvres de 1911-1912, le
disjointage est reprsent affectant le personnage en une espce dexfoliation ; et par l (ctait au demeurant la destination des chronophotogrammes de Marey et de Muybridge), lil est autoris, mme pouss
refaire la synthse du mouvement arrt, voir chacune des formes
comme lune des esquisses dune unit suppose, le mouvement continu.
La reprsentation avec sa force propre, phnomnologique, de synchronisation du divers fait ainsi chec la dischronie. Dans le cours de 1912,
le passage se dplace, il ne sera plus reprsent, mais recherch dans le
rapport de lil au support ; et il est renvers, conduisant dsormais au
multiple. Le Grand Verre chappe aux effets de contrle et synthse.
2

Interview par J. J. Sweeney, in Eleven Europeans in America , The Museum of Modern Art Bulletin XIII,
4-5, 1946, 20.

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The if, then of implication leads us to tie together different moments,

that of the hypothesis and that of the proposition that follows from it: it
makes for a homogeneous time that is required by causality or any other
category of this type. But when Duchamp writes given just like that (like
a child starting to muse about the formulation of a problem concerning the
volume of water in a container, a problem that he wont be able to solve and
that plunges him into astonishment and boredom, one October evening), the
statement is placed in an instant that is itself its own temporal referential;
and any statement that you think you can draw from it, far from following
from it, must be taken as an autonomous temporal kernel, as the instance of
a potency that gives room to a different temporality. Thus you have no succession or simultaneity, but rather autochronies, which have no relations
between them other than chance ones, let us say: relations of dischrony.
Nothing of the one passes into the other. Each one begins a story, which
is instantaneous. None of them answers to or for any other of them; none
of them resolves a problem. This would always, then, be an abuse of power
because it would be a constraint of the one upon the other.
Unoptical vision
The decomposition of movement in the Sad Young Man or the Nude Descending
a Staircase arises from the same desire to dischronograph time. My goal was,
says Duchamp to Sweeney, a static representation of movement a static
composition indicating the various positions taken by a form in movement
without seeking to produce any cinematic effect by means of painting.2
But in the works of 1911-1912, the disjointing is represented as affecting the
character in a kind of exfoliation; and thereby (this was in the long run
the fate of the time-lapse photographs of Marey and Muybridge), the eye is
authorized, even pushed to resynthesize the arrested movement, to see each
of the forms as one of the sketches of an assumed unity, namely, continuous
movement. The representation, with its own phenomenological force of
synchronization of the diverse, thus thwarts dischrony. In the course of 1912,
the passing is displaced. It is no longer represented, but sought for in the relation of the eye to the support; and it is reversed, leading henceforth to the
multiple. The Large Glass escapes the effects of control and synthesis.
2

Interview by J.J. Sweeney, in Eleven Europeans in America, The Museum of Modern Art Bulletin XII, 4-5, 1946, 20.

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Prenons le chromatisme, affaire centrale sil est vrai que peindre est au
moins dposer des pigments sur des surfaces. Il faut djouer limplication
chromatique, les passages harmoniques dune plage lautre de la surface peinte, molculariser chaque couleur, la rendre indpendante dune
source lumineuse unique et uniforme : [] les couleurs prises dans le
sens sources lumineuses colorantes et non pas diffrenciations dans une
lumire uniforme (lumire du soleil, artificielle, etc.) (DDS, 117-118).
Ainsi le recours de lil la gamme chromatique est cart, retard :
Supposant plusieurs couleurs/-sources lumineuses (de cet ordre) / exposes en mme temps le rapport / optique de ces diffrentes sources / colorantes nest plus du mme ordre / que la comparaison dune tache rouge
et dune / tache bleue dans une lumire solaire. / Il y a une certaine
inopticit, une / certaine considration froide, ces colorants / naffectant / que
des yeux imaginaires dans cette / exposition () (DDS, 118).
Un il sans mmoire. Le parti pris de la position contre les supposition, opposition et composition exige lamnsie : Perdre la possibilit de
reconnatre (didentifier) / 2 choses semblables. / 2 couleurs, 2 dentelles /
2 chapeaux, 2 formes qc. / arriver lImpossibilit de / mmoire visuelle
suffisante / pour transporter / dun semblable lautre (DDS, 47). Il
sagit de dissimiler les donnes. Toute la machinerie est dissimilante. La
similitude, comme la causalit et limplication, vient de la stupidit de
lil, de laquelle sengendre son pouvoir. La dissimilation djoue ce pouvoir, elle le met en chec.
Lil a besoin de croire, dunifier, dtre intelligent. Il aime le point,
comme son vis--vis dans un miroir quil nomme le monde. Les perspecteurs ont flatt cette stupidit du point de convergence ; elle ne tient
pas au fait de la reprsentation des figures, mais lordre unitaire qui
leur est impos. Duchamp peste contre la peinture rtinienne , cest-dire focalise, et olfactive , cest--dire perceptive. Bte comme
un peintre : il attaque la stupidit qui donne crance au corps ,
la machine organique du centralisme reproductif. Le travail dimmobilisation et dmobilisation commenc par Czanne se continue dans
Duchamp, par-del lhorizon phnomnologique des petites sensations
qui en limitait la porte.
La dissolution des ensembles visuels na pas pour fin de retrouver un
corps ou ego plus originaire que le corps cartsien, une chair comme
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Let us take colorings, which are the heart of the matter if it is true that
to paint is, at a minimum, to deposit pigments on surfaces. You must foil
the chromatic implication, the harmonic transitions from one band to
another of the painted surface; you must molecularize each color, render
it independent of a unique and uniform light source: [] colors taken
in the sense of light sources that give color and not as differentiations
within a uniform light (sunlight, artificial light, etc.) (DDS, 117-118).
Thus the eyes recourse to the chromatic spectrum is set aside, retarded:
Assuming several light-source / colors (of this order) / exposed at the
same time the optical / relation of these different coloring / sources is no
longer of the same order / as the comparison of a red spot and a / blue spot
in a solar light. / There is a certain inopticity, a certain / cold consideration, since
these colorants / affect only / imaginary eyes in this / exposure. (DDS, 118).
An eye without memory. To take the side of position against supposition, opposition and composition requires amnesia: To lose the possibility
of recognizing (of identifying) / 2 similar things. / 2 colors, 2 laces / 2 hats, 2
forms of any kind / to arrive at the Impossibility of / a visual memory sufficient / for transporting / from one similar thing to the other (DDS, 47). Its
a question of dissimilating the givens. The whole machinery is dissimilating. Similitude, like causality and implication, comes from the stupidity
of the eye, out of which its power is engendered. Dissimilation foils this
power: it puts it in check.
The eye needs to think, to unify, to be intelligent. It loves the point, as its
opposite number in a mirror that it names the world. The perspectivists
flattered this stupidity of the point of convergence; it does not arise from
the fact of the representation of figures, but from the unitary order that
is imposed on them. Duchamp thunders against retinal, that is, focused
painting, and olfactive, that is, perceptual painting. As stupid as a
painter: he attacks the stupidity that gives credence to the body, to the
organic machine of reproductive centralism. The work of immobilization
and demobilization begun by Czanne is continued in Duchamp, beyond
the phenomenological horizon of the little sensations, which limited its
scope.
The dissolution of visual ensembles does not have the goal of rediscovering a body or an ego more originary than the Cartesian body, a flesh
as Merleau-Ponty said, opening onto a world without any established
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disait Merleau-Ponty, ouvrant un monde sans rfrentiel tabli. Comme

il ny a pas de problme, il ny a pas dorigine, mme impalpable. Les dissolutions effectues par le travail de Duchamp ne sont pas des analyses,
mais des inventions ou imaginations. Nulle ambition de restituer les difformits qui flottent aux confins du champ de vision ni lespace curviligne
ou ltendue chiasmatique supposs les rgir. Il faut aveugler lil qui croit
voir quelque chose, il faut faire une peinture de ccit qui plonge la suffisance de lil dans la droute, faire un tableau malade (DDS, 49).
Regret
Tel est lenjeu du retard (DDS, 41) que le Verre impose limpatience de
voir. Si le Verre est invisible, ce nest pas par mystique ni par pessimisme,
par dfaut, mais par une machination excessivement imaginative. Il ouvre
des intervalles et moments de dlai, il dcomprime les coordonnes du centralisme, il dmobilise le corps darme quest le corps de lil : Contre
le service militaire obligatoire : / un loignement de chaque membre, /
du cur et des autres units anatomiques ; / chaque soldat ne pouvant /
dj plus revtir un uniforme, son / cur alimentant tlphoniquement / un
bras loign, etc. // Puis, plus dalimentation ; chaque loign sisolant.
// Enfin une Rglementation / des regrets dloign loign (DDS, 36).
Non seulement luniformit disparat, mais lidentit ; non seulement
lassimilation dun soldat lautre par un il qui les compose, mais lintgration de chaque corpuscule soldat lui-mme. Dfaites, les units cessent de devoir servir ; elles ne sont pas des corps, mais des paquets de singularits, paquets qui se dfont leur tour. Reste tablir entre les grains
de matire une rgulation dont la fonction ne peut tre de les runir,
mais doit les laisser dans les regrets : chaque liaison de grain grain doit
tre mconnaissable, trangre non seulement une autre liaison entre
dautres grains, mais une prcdente entre les mmes .
Le regret (la jalousie ?) est lune des catgories de la logique de la dissimilation ; il dsigne le lien entre des lments non lis. Lien clibataire :
leitmotiv des litanies du chariot (DDS, 81 et 82), mais aussi formation
dismtrique, par la mthode des Stoppages-talon, des Tubes capillaires
qui relient entre eux les Moules mliques. Ceux-ci sont rassembls
en un cimetire militaire, o les uniformes abandonns (livr[e]s) sont
matire regret. Celui-ci nest pas la rcurrence nostalgique dune unit
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referential. As there is no problem, there is no origin, not even an impalpable one. The dissolutions brought about by Duchamps work are not
analyses, but inventions or imaginations. There is no ambition to restore
the deformities floating within the confines of the field of vision or the
curvilinear space or the chiasmatic extension that is assumed to govern
them. You have to blind the eye that thinks it sees something; you have to
make a painting of blindness that plunges the sufficiency of the eye into
rout; you have to make a sick picture (DDS, 49).
Regret
This is whats at stake in the retarding (DDS, 41) that the Glass imposes on
our impatience to see. If the Glass is invisible, its not through mystique
or pessimism, not because of a defect, but through an excessively imaginative machination. It opens intervals and moments of delay; it decompresses the coordinates of centralism; it demobilizes the army corps that
is the body of the eye: Against compulsory military service: / a distance
of each member, / from the heart and the other anatomical units; / each
soldier being already / no longer able to put on a uniform, his / heart feeding telephonically / a distant arm, etc. // Then, no more feeding; each distant
unit / being isolated. / In the end a Regulation / of regrets from one distant
unit to another (DDS, 36).
Not only does uniformity disappear, but so does identity; not only the
assimilation of one soldier to another by an eye that composes them, but
the integration of each soldier-corpuscle to himself. Once they are undone,
the units cease to have to serve; they are not bodies, but packets of singularities, packets that come undone in their turn. It remains to establish
between the grains of matter a regulation whose function cannot be to
unite them, but must leave them in regrets: each connection of grain to
grain must be misrecognizable, alien not only to a different connection
between other grains, but to a previous one between the same ones.
Regret (jealousy?) is one of the categories of the logic of dissimilation;
it designates the connection between unconnected elements. Bachelor
link: leitmotiv of the litanies of the Trolley (DDS, 81 and 82), but also the
dismetrical formation, by the method of the Standard Stoppages, of the
Capillary Tubes that link the male-ish [mliques] Molds with one another.
These Molds are gathered in a military cemetery, where the abandoned
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perdue, il est la rglementation doccurrence de singularits dans la dischronie sans mmoire.

Le regret est un lien faible, qui retarde quelque chose. La difficult est
quil ne parat pas retarder lunification, comme le Verre lui-mme, mais
mettre un dlai la dispersion complte des grains : tant que chaque singularit regrette lautre, elle y tient. Est-ce que cela ne suffit pas refaire
un corps ? Le regret serait donc une contre-catgorie dans la logique de
la dissimilation.
Mais dans une telle logique, il faut que les contre-catgories oprent
dans les catgories. Le regret nest pas quelque chose qui suspendrait le
destin mortifre dun ensemble : celui-ci nexiste pas. Il indique entre les
tats des matires et entre les rgions des diverses pices de la machine la
qualit de lloignement sans lequel la machine ne serait en effet quun
organisme. tant donnes des plantes qui regretteraient le soleil
Encore un tel systme serait-il trop fort. Imaginons quelques poussires
de matire sur le bord dune galaxie, regrettant celles qui forment des
corps lintrieur de cette dernire ; et linverse. Ce lien est celui de
bord, de charnire (DDS, 42). La dissimilation veut que de ce ct et de
l autre dune limite , on nait pas affaire au mme espace. Duchamp
analyse trs fond la machinerie distopique des espaces n-dimensionnels.
Le regret est la coupure au sens de Dedekind et Poincar, chec la
clture des dimensions.
Les checs sont ce jeu dans lequel Duchamp semploie non gagner,
mais djouer le dsir de pouvoir, dsir de prendre , en dissimilant
la situation dun coup lautre. Ainsi il joue aux checs dans lautre sens,
il fait marcher le dispositif lenvers, exactement comme les anamorphiques lont fait avec le portillon de Drer :3 il cherche tel dplacement
de telle pice qui fait que la situation antrieure devenue mconnaissable ne peut qutre oublie, et donc dmolies les intentions squentielles
de ladversaire. Duchamp nest pas plus ou moins chiquen quil nest
peintre, mais machine datomisation sur tous les supports, criblant le
temps des projets et lespace des perspectives, laissant filer les grains.
3

Gaiet de trouver, aprs coup, dans la seule dition alors disponible de la Bote Blanche ( lInfinitif, trad.
Cleve Gray, New York, 1967) cette note, que je retranscris ici de loriginal : Perspective // Voir Catalogue
/ de Bbthq. St G. / toute la rubrique / Perspective : // Niceron (le P. J. Fr) / Thaumaturgus / opticus (cf.
DDS, 122).

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(surrendered) uniforms (or servants livery) are a matter for regret. This regret
is not the nostalgic recurrence of a lost unity, but it is the regulation of occurrence of singularities in dischrony without memory.
Regret is a weak link, which retards something. The difficulty is that it
does not appear to retard unification, like the Glass itself, but to put a delay
into the complete dispersion of the grains: inasmuch as each singularity
misses the other, it holds on to it. Isnt that enough to remake a body? Regret
would thus be a counter-category in the logic of dissimilation.
But in such a logic, the counter-categories must operate within the categories. Regret is not something that would suspend the death-bearing fate
of an ensemble: this does not exist. It indicates the quality of distancing
between the states of the materials and between the regions of the various
parts of the machine, a distancing without which the machine would in effect
be only an organism. Given planets that would miss the sun. But such a
system would be too strong. Let us imagine some dust-specks of matter of
the edge of a galaxy, missing those that form bodies on the inside of this
galaxy and the other way around. This link is that of edge, of hinge (DDS, 42).
Dissimilation would have it that from this side and the other of a limit,
you would not be dealing with the same space. Duchamp analyzes very thoroughly the dystopic machinery of n-dimensional spaces. Regret is the cut in
Dedekinds and Poincars sense, the failure in the closure of the dimensions.
Chess [in French, les checs also failures] is this game in which Duchamp
applies himself not to winning, but to foiling the desire for power, desire to
take, by dissimilating the situation from one move to the next. Thus he
plays chess the other way round. He makes the apparatus go in reverse, exactly
as the anamorphics did with Drers gate:3 he seeks such-and-such a move of
such-and-such a piece, which would have the result that the previous position, having become misrecognizable, cannot but be forgotten, and therefore
the sequential intentions of the adversary are demolished. Duchamp is neither
more nor less a chess player or a painter, but a machine of atomization on all
the supports, sifting the time of plans and the space of perspectives, letting
the grains trickle away.

What fun to find later in the only edition of the White Box then available ( lInfinitif, trans.
Cleve Gray, New York, 1967) the following footnote, which I now transcribe from the original: Perspective / See Catalogue / of St G Lib./ the whole section / Perspective: // Niceron (the
Fr Jes. Pr.) / Thaumaturgus / opticus (cf. DDS, 122).

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Prcision inexacte
Lhritage des grains jamais engrangs appartient Cage, Feldman.
Mme possibilit avec les cervellits, avec les sons (DDS, 47).
Duchamp crit Erratum musical (DDS, 52-53). Si le Verre est un appareil/instrument (DDS, 66), est-ce parce que sy pratiquent llevage
des couleurs (DDS, 100) et celui des poussires(DDS, 77-78): machine
marchant rebours du conditionnement?
Par quelles sortes de culture obtenir les grains? Sera-ce par analyse, en
procdant des dcompositions ordonnes? Dans la chronophotographie, la mthode consiste en ce que les intervalles denregistrement sont
rguliers, ils correspondent aux distances gales sparant deux deux
les orifices percs dans la plaque circulaire qui tourne devant lobjectif de lappareil enregistreur. Cette rptition rgle favorise la synthse
optique. Il en va de mme dans le tournage et la projection cinmatographiques, o le nombre dimages / seconde de la camra et du projecteur
est constant. Voil des machines sages, surs entre elles, filles de la costruzione legittima dAlberti et du portillon de Drer: celui-ci outil dartisan, celle-l procd dingnieur, permettant lun et lautre de produire
un effet de volume sur un plan.
Ces appareils sont assurment des transformateurs, dont on peut admirer
la puissance magique, comme firent les perspecteurs; ils mtamorphosent
des figures planes en volumes et des tats de repos en mouvements. Ils font
sduction (plutt quillusion). Mais on peut aussi ( partir ou non dune tradition iconophone: Rigidit genre huguenot [DDS, 101]) sen prendre
leur mimtisme: ils ne peuvent produire que des simulacres, leur logique
est celle de la rplication, leur mtaphysique celle du retour du mme, elles
rptent des reprsents entre lesquels la diffrence ne doit jamais interdire
que lil puisse reconnatre quils appartiennent la mme vraisemblance
optique. Peu importe alors que ces machines perspective puissent transmuter le 2- en 3-dimensionnel, cette puissance nest rien auprs du terrible
pouvoir qui les vouent, ainsi que leurs usages, se rpter.
Lide de rptition mpouvante, disait Duchamp en 1958. En 1915:
Mes mthodes changent constamment. Ma dernire uvre est radicalement diffrente de tout ce qui la prcde.4 Le principe de dissimi4

Cit par Arturo Schwarz, The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, New York, 1970, 21. (Cf. du mme ouvrage,
la version franaise, La Marie mise nue chez Marcel Duchamp, mme, Paris, 1974, 33).

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Inexact precision
The heritage of the grains never gathered and put into the barn belongs
to Cage, to Feldman. The same possibility with braininesses [cervellits],
with sounds (DDS, 47). Duchamp writes Musical Erratum (DDS, 52-53). If
the Glass is an apparatus/instrument (DDS, 66), is it because in it is practiced the rearing of colors (DDS, 100) and of dust-particles (DDS, 77-78):
a machine functioning against the grain of conditioning?
By what sort of cultivation do you obtain grains? Will it be by analysis,
going on to ordered decompositions? In time-lapse photography, the
method consists in the way the recording intervals are regular; they correspond to the equal distances separating two by two the orifices pierced in
the circular plate that turns in front of the objective lens of the recording
apparatus. This regulated repetition favors optical synthesis. The same
goes for filming and projection in cinematography: the number of images
per second of the camera and the projector is constant. These are wellbehaved machines, sisters unto each other, daughters of the costruzione
legittima of Alberti and of Drers gate: the latter a craftsmans tool, the
former an engineers procedure, but both allowing you to produce a volume effect on a plane surface.
These apparatuses are assuredly transformers, whose magical power one
can admire, as did the perspectivists; they metamorphose plane figures into
volumes and states of rest into movements. They perform seduction (rather
than illusion). But you can also (whether or not you start out from an iconophobic tradition: Rigidity of the Huguenot kind [DDS, 101]) attack their
mimeticism: They can produce only simulacra; their logic is that of replication; their metaphysics that of the recurrence of the same; they repeat represented things, of which the differences among them must never forbid
the eye to recognize that they belong to the same optical verisimilitude. So
it matters little that these perspective machines can transmute the 2-into
the 3-dimensional. This power is nothing compared to the terrible power
that condemns them, along with their users, to repeat themselves.
The idea of repetition terrifies me, said Duchamp in 1958. In 1915:
My methods change constantly. My latest work is radically different from everything that preceded it.4 The principle of dissimilation

Quoted by Arturo Schwartz, The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, New York, 1970, 21.

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lation opre non seulement dune uvre lautre, mais lintrieur de

chacune delles. Il ne fournit rien de moins que l ide de Fabrication
du Verre, le procd des Stoppages Etalon: reconstitution approche
de lunit de longueur, daprs laquelle sont dessins les Tubes capillaires
qui conduisent le gaz sortant des Moules vers les Tamis. Dans la partie
suprieure, les Pistons de courant dair sont dtermins selon le mme
principe : 3 Photos dun morceau dtoffe blanche / piston du courant
dair ; c..d. / toffe accepte et refuse / par le courant dair (DDS, 57).
Et encore, les neuf Tirs : De plus ou moins loin ; sur un but. / Ce but
est en somme une correspondance / du point de fuite (en perspective). //
La figure obtenue sera la / projection (dadresse) des principaux / points
dun corps 3-dimensionnel. Par le / maximum dadresse, cette projection se / rduirait un point (le but). // Par une adresse ordinaire cette
/ projection sera une dmultiplication / du but. [] // En gnral, la
figure obtenue / est laplatissement voyable (arrt / en cours de route) du
corps / dmultipli (DDS, 54).
La dissimilation, respectivement : des units de longueur, des carrs de
toile, du point de fuite, est la loi ou la rglementation commune
laquelle obit leur projection sur le Verre : Le vent pour les pistons de
courant dair // ladresse pour les trous // le poids pour les Stoppagestalon // dvelopper (DDS, 55). Le hasard est requis titre de partenaire dans le jeu qui se joue contre la similitude et le vraisemblable ; avec
son aide, on peut tre prcis, mais inexact .5 La prcision lutte pour
linexactitude, fait dfi la pente de lil et de lesprit, qui est assimilatrice. Les mauvaises sont exactes parce quelles oprent selon ordre et
mesure, soit par recouvrement et rptition.
Figure dispective
Ces observations ramnent la perspective. Le Verre est-il figuratif ou
non-figuratif ? Ni lun ni lautre. Il figure linfigurable, il porte lempreinte inscrite, ou lombre porte, sur son plan, dune figure qui ne saurait tre intuitionne. Celle au moins dune femme quatre dimensions,
monstre. Tout ce qui a une forme tridimensionnelle est la projection
dans notre monde dun monde quadridimensionnel, et ma Marie par
5

Expression cite par L. Steefel, The Position of La Marie Mise Nu par ses Clibataires, mme (1915-1923) in The
Stylistic and Iconographic Development of the Art of Marcel Duchamp, University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, 1960.

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operates not only from one work to another but within each of them. It
provides nothing less than the Manufacture-idea of the Glass, the procedure of the Standard Stoppages: approximate reconstitution of the unit of
length, according to which the Capillary Tubes are designed that conduct
the gas coming out of the Molds toward the Sieves. In the upper part, the
Draft Pistons are determined according to the same principle: 3 Photos
of a piece of white cloth / draft piston, i.e., / fabric accepted and refused /
by the current of air (DDS, 57). And again, the nine Fired Shots: From
more or less far away; at a target. / This target is in sum a correspondence / of
the vanishing-point (in perspective). // The figure obtained will be the /
projection (of skill) of the principal / points of a 3-dimensional body by
the / maximum skill, this projection would / be reduced to a point (the
target) // By an ordinary skill this / projection will be a demultiplication /
of the target [] // In general, the figure obtained / is the seeable flattening
(arrest / while on the way) of the reduced / body (DDS, 54).
The dissimilation of, respectively, the units of length, the squares of
cloth, the vanishing point, is the common law or regulation that
their projection onto the Glass obeys: The wind for the draft pistons //
the skill for the holes // the weight for the Standard-Stoppages // to be
developed (DDS, 55). Chance is required as a partner in the game that is
played against similitude and verisimilitude; with its help, one can be
precise, but inexact.5 Precision fights for inaccuracy, defies the inclination of the eye and the mind, which is assimilatory. Bad sciences are exact
because they operate according to order and measure, that is, by covering
up and by repetition.
Dispective6 figure
These observations bring us back to perspective. Is the Glass figurative
or non-figurative? Neither the one nor the other. It figures the unfigurable; it bears the imprint inscribed, or the shadow cast, on its plane, by a
figure that could not be intuited at least that of a woman having four

Expression quoted by L. Steefel, The position of La Marie mise nu par ses clibataires,
mme (1915-1923) in the stylistic and iconographic development of the art of Marcel Duchamp, University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, 1960.
As opposed to perspective [translators note].

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exemple serait une projection tridimensionnelle dune marie quadridimensionnelle. Trs bien. Mais comme cest sur un verre, cest plan,
et alors ma Marie est la reprsentation bidimensionnelle dune marie
tridimensionnelle qui serait elle-mme la projection de la marie quadridimensionnelle dans le monde tridimensionnel. 6
Tout lespace doit ici subir un retard irrparable. (Irrparable : il est vain,
il est contraire la passion de Duchamp, son passage, de chercher un
point de bonne vision o le Verre tout entier recouvrerait son unit,
serait-elle phmre et nimbe du prestige de lrotique.) Duchamp doit
son enttement en faveur de la dissimilation de prendre enfin le verre pour
matriau de sa machine. Employer le verre transparent / et la glace pour la
perspective 4 (DDS, 125). Le verre et la glace. O est la glace ? Le Verre est
lui-mme fait de lassemblage de deux parties, haut et bas, qui sont comme
deux miroirs ajoints le long dune charnire forme par les barres de verre
mdianes. Les images que nous voyons dans ces deux miroirs, Clibataires
en bas, Marie en haut, ne sont pas places sur le mme plan ; il faut imaginer que les miroirs forment un angle obtus lun avec lautre, et que les
espaces virtuels qui sy ouvrent sont, disons : diffrents.
Telle est la machination spatiale dans laquelle on va non pas prendre
le virtuel, mais dissimiler le prtendu rel. rsumer les feuillets de la
Bote Blanche portant sur la perspective et ltendue, on obtient le raisonnement suivant, brut, incorrect , dit Duchamp, faux en effet, mais
intressant : on observe quun point ne coupe pas le volume (3-dimensionnel) dans lequel il est situ, tandis quune droite le coupe ;
tant donn maintenant un miroir, et une droite perpendiculaire sa
surface, cette droite sarrte (ici Duchamp met un ? ) celle-ci en
un point ; veut-on avoir une reprsentation dun espace quadri-dimensionnel, il suffit dimaginer que prolonge de lautre ct du miroir, cette
droite y prsente la mme proprit que le point dans lespace habituel,
cest--dire quelle ne coupe pas plus lespace virtuel4 que le point ne
coupe lespace rel3 ; on imagine alors que se prolongeant infiniment
dans le premier nomm, elle y est en effet contenue, mais sans y produire aucun effet de coupure (DDS, 129). La surface du miroir opre
comme mcanisme dissimilant, elle mtamorphose la droite en point ;
6

Duchamp George et Richard Hamilton, cit par A. Schwarz, op. cit., p. 23. (Cf. la version franaise, op. cit., 35).

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dimensions, a monster. Everything that has a tri-dimensional form is the

projection into our world of a quadri-dimensional world, and my Bride for
example would be a tri-dimensional projection of a quadri-dimensional
Bride. Very good. But as its on a glass, its plane, and so my Bride is the bidimensional representation of a tri-dimensional Bride who is herself the
projection of the quadri-dimensional Bride into the tri-dimensional world.7
All space must here submit to an irreparable retardation. (Irreparable:
its vain, and its contrary to Duchamps passion, to his passing, to look for a
point of good vision where the Glass in its entirety would recover its unity,
however ephemeral and haloed with the prestige of the erotic.) Duchamp
owes it to his stubbornness in favor of dissimilation to take glass, finally, as
the raw material for his machine. To use transparent glass / and the mirror
for the perspective 4 (DDS, 125). The glass and the mirror. Where is the mirror?
The Glass is itself made by assembling two parts, top and bottom, which are
like two mirrors jointed together along a hinge formed by the median bars of
glass. The images we see in these two mirrors, Bachelors down below, Bride
up above, are not placed on the same plane; you must imagine that the mirrors form an obtuse angle with each other, and that the virtual spaces that are
opened up in them are, let us say: different.
Such is the spatial machination in which we will not take the virtual but
dissimilate what is claimed to be the real. To sum up the pages of the White
Box that relate to perspective and extension, we obtain the following reasoning, rough, incorrect, says Duchamp, false indeed, but interesting: you
observe that a point does not cut the (3-dimensional) volume in which it is
situated, whereas a straight line cuts it; given, now, a mirror, and a straight
line perpendicular to its surface, that straight line stops (here Duchamp
puts a question mark) at this surface in a point; if you want to have a representation of a quadri-dimensional space, its enough to imagine that, if
prolonged on the other side of the mirror, that straight line presents there
the same property as the the point in usual space, i.e., it does not cut virtual space4 any more than the point cuts real space3; you can imagine, then,
that in prolonging itself infinitely into the first-mentioned space, it is in
effect contained there, but without producing any cutting effect in it (DDS,
129). The surface of the mirror operates as a dissimilating mechanism, it

Duchamp to George and Richard Hamilton, quoted by A. Schwarz, The Complete Works, 23.

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plus prcisment, elle ddouble la linarit, elle dgage une ponctualit

virtuelle de la droite.
Sur ce point (qui nest pas un point), oscille tout le travail de Duchamp,
et se joue la possibilit de reprsenter lespace imprsentable ; sur lui se
tient toute la fiction du monstre pulsionnel.
Beaucoup des Notes publies ultrieurement sous le titre linfinitif
tournent autour de cette opration et lmancipent des erreurs prcdentes.
On y trouve cette formule : Le continu 4-dim. est / essentiellement / le
miroir du continu 3-dim. (DDS, 130).7 Voil de quoi raffiner le problme. Comment en effet la rflexion dans un miroir pourrait-elle doter
la dtermination dun objet spatial dune dimension supplmentaire, alors
que cest sa proprit reconnue, depuis loptique cartsienne au moins, en
fait depuis les Traits de perspectives issus des recherches dEuclide, que
lespace reflt est homogne lespace quil reflte ? Lopration spculaire
nest-elle pas essentiellement rplicative et identitaire ?
Mais Duchamp en appelle au miroirique contre le spculaire, guid
en cela par ce quil a pu connatre des travaux des gomtres et mathmaticiens touchant les espaces n-dimensionnels. Machine duplicative, le
miroir peut tre pris comme une machine duplice ; la premire on peut
faire confiance, elle rend ce quon lui donne ; la seconde est ruse. La ruse
nest pas seulement linfidlit du miroir, elle tient ce que sa fidlit et
son infidlit se produisent ensemble, celle-ci dissimule dans celle-l. La
ruse sinclut elle-mme dans une dissimilation sans finalit, o le droit
abrite le tors et en est travaill.
Ce double jeu du miroir donne sa porte de force et dincertitude
llaboration par Kant de la diffrence des rgions dans lespace .8 Au
moment mme o sy trouve rvl lespace absolu originaire qui rend
insuperposables et donc incongruents ( Le corps qui est entirement
semblable un autre, sil ne peut tre inscrit dans les mmes limites que
ce dernier, je lappelle son incongruentes Gegenstck ) des objets pourtant indiscernables par leur dfinition, comme deux crous semblables
lun pas de vis mais droit, lautre gauche, ou deux triangles sphriques
semblables, ou les deux mains, au moment donc o la spatialisation
7
8

Le manuscrit porte, aprs essentiellement : une glace , ratur.

Von dem ersten Grunde des Unterschiedes der Gegenden im Raume (1768), Smmtliche Werke, Leipzig, 1867,
Bd II, 390.

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metamorphoses the straight line into a point; more precisely, it splits linearity: it extracts a virtual punctuality from the straight line.
On this point (which is not a point) all the work of Duchamp oscillates,
and the possibility of representing unpresentable space is played out;8 on it
stands the whole fiction of the psychic-drive-monster.
Many of the Notes published later under the title A linfinitif [In the
Infinitive] turn this operation around and emancipate it from previous errors.
You can find there this formula: The 4-dim. continuous is / essentially / the
mirror of the 3-dim. continuous (DDS, 130).9 Theres something with which
to refine the problem. How indeed could the reflection in a mirror endow the
determination of a spatial object with an extra dimension, when it has been
its recognized property since the optics of Descartes at least, and in fact since
the treatises on perspectives that emerged from Euclids researches that
reflected space is homogeneous to the space that it reflects? Isnt the specular
operation essentially one that replicates and makes identical?
But Duchamp resorts to the mirrorish against the specular, guided by
what he knew of the geometers and mathematicians on n-dimensional spaces.
A duplicating machine, the mirror can be taken as a duplex/duplicitous
machine; you can have confidence in the first it gives back what you give it;
the second one is cunning. The cunning is not only the infidelity of the mirror, but also it stems from the fact that its fidelity and its infidelity are produced together, the latter dissimulated in the former. The cunning is itself
included in a dissimilation without finality: the straight shelters the crooked
and is worked over by it.
This double game of the mirror gives to Kants elaboration of the difference of regions in space its range of force and uncertainty.10 At the very
moment when there is revealed the absolute originary space that makes
non-superimposable and incongruent (The body which is entirely similar
to another, if it can be inscribed in the same limits as the latter, I call it its
incongruentes Gegenstck) objects that are nevertheless, from their definition,
indiscernible, like two similar screws, one with a right-hand thread and the

8
9
10

sur ce point [] se joue la possibilit de reprsenter lespace imprsentable A complex

pun: se jouer can also mean to deceive, to scoff at, to make light of [translators note].
The manuscript has, after essentially, a mirror, crossed out.
Von dem ersten Grunde des Unterschiedes der Gegenden im Raume (1768), Smmtliche Werke,
Leipzig, 1867, Bd. II, p. 390.

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originaire est saisie comme une puissance miroirique dincongruence des

semblables, le spculaire est sollicit aussi pour rsoudre ces contraires
grce, cette fois, son pouvoir de redoublement : le corps humain sil est
fait de deux moitis incongruentes lune lautre, il suffit de rflchir lune
delles dans un miroir, dit Kant, pour que son image devienne congruente
lautre moiti ; car le Gegenstck [le pendant] du Gegenstck dun objet
est ncessairement congruent celui-ci . On peut donc ruser avec la
ruse, faire fabriquer de lidentique la machine daltration. Sur quelle
fonction dcidera-t-on darrter le jeu de la ruse et de la fidlit ? Kant sur
celle-l, Hegel sur celle-ci. Ou plutt : la question est plus hglienne que
kantienne. Kant dit : en tout cas, sil y a un jeu et quelque chose arrter,
cest quon est dabord dans la dissimilation ; lhomognit de lespace
est un rsultat de gomtre.
Mais quarrive-t-il si le gomtre se prend daffection pour lhtrogne ?
Si sa curiosit se porte aux grandeurs continues prcisment en ce quelles
ne se laissent pas mesurer les unes par les autres, en ce que leur superposition est impossible, en ce quelles ne sont pas indpendantes de leur
position ? .9 Alors se dveloppe, partir de lAnalysis situs, la topologie,
machine gomtrique fonctionnant lenvers , non pour commensurer,
mais pour dmesurer. Cest cette thorie des grandeurs non mesurables
que Duchamp rencontre en lisant Poincar, lequel reprend Dedekind.
Cest elle quil doit lide de la coupure , dont lusage doit permettre
selon Dedekind de construire des espaces n-dimensionnels par-del la forme
intuitive que nous impose lespace perceptif, lespace absolu de Kant.
Poincar : Pour diviser lespace, il faut des coupures que lon appelle
surfaces ; pour diviser les surfaces, il faut des coupures que lon appelle des
lignes ; pour diviser les lignes, il faut des coupures que lon appelle points ;
on ne peut aller plus loin et le point ne peut tre divis, le point nest pas un
continu ; alors des lignes, quon peut diviser par des coupures qui ne sont
pas des continus, seront des continus une dimension ; les surfaces que lon
peut diviser par des coupures continues une dimension, seront des continus deux dimensions, enfin lespace que lon peut diviser par des coupures
continues deux dimensions sera un continu trois dimensions. 10
Sur quoi Duchamp : une tendue que lon ne peut couper que par
9
10

B. Riemann, cit par Bourbaki, lments dhistoire des mathmatiques, 1960, 147.
La Valeur de la science, Flammarion, sd (1905), 74.

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other with a left-hand thread, or two similar spherical triangles, or ones two
hands at the moment, then, when the originary spatialization is grasped as
a mirrorish power of incongruence of similars, the specular is summoned also
to resolve these contraries, this time thanks to its power of reduplication. The
human body, if it is made of two halves that are mutually incongruent, its
enough to reflect one of them in a mirror, says Kant, for its image to become
congruent with the other half; for the Gegenstck (the matching part) of the
Gegenstck of an object is necessarily congruent to the object, itself. Thus you can
fight cunning with cunning, bring about the manufacture of identicals using an
alteration machine. On what function will you decide to stop the play of cunning
and fidelity? Kant stops it on cunning and Hegel on fidelity. Or rather: the question is more Hegelian than Kantian. Kant says: In any case, if there is play and
something to be stopped, its because in the first place you are in dissimilation;
the homogeneity of space is a geometers result.
But what happens if the geometer is possessed by affection for the heterogeneous? If his curiosity goes as far as sizes that are continuous precisely in that they
cannot be measured by each other, in that their superimposition is impossible,
in that they are not independent of their position?11 Then there develops, starting out from the Analysis situs, topology, a geometrical machine functioning in
reverse, not to make commensurable, but to unmeasure. Its this theory of nonmeasurable sizes that Duchamp encounters in reading Poincar, who is taken up
by Dedekind. Its to this theory that he owes the idea of the cut, the use of that
must permit us, according to Dedekind, to construct n-dimensional spaces beyond
the intuitive form imposed on us by perceptible space, the absolute space of Kant.
Poincar: In order to divide space, there must be the breaks which we call
surfaces; in order to divide surfaces, there must be the breaks which we call lines;
in order to divide lines, there must be the breaks which we call points; you cannot
go further and the point cannot be divided, the point is not a continuum; thus,
lines, which can be divided by breaks which are not continua, will be one-dimensional continua; surfaces, which can be divided by breaks that are continuous
in one dimension, will be two-dimensional continua, and finally space, which
can be divided by breaks that are continuous in two dimensions, will be a threedimensional continuum.12

11
12

B. Riemann, quoted by Bourbaki, lments dhistoire des mathmatiques, 1960, 147.

La Valeur de la science, Flammarion, n.d. (1905), 74.

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des continuums trois dimensions sera un continu quatre dimensions.

En effet un espace est appel tridimensionnel quand un lment (ou
ligne) dun continuum 2-dimensionnel (ou surface) appartient la fois
ce continuum et un autre : la surface en question est en intersection
par une ligne avec toute autre surface trace dans cet espace. On dira de
mme quune tendue est quadridimensionnelle quand un lment (ou
surface) dun continuum 3-dimensionnel (ou volume) appartient la fois
ce continuum et un autre ( un autre volume). La puissance coupante,
cest--dire la proprit dun continuum dtre ncessairement en intersection avec tous les continuums de mme rang, nest plus alors exerce
par la surface, mais par le volume.
Ainsi limage dun angle 4-dimensionnel pourrait tre donne, pense
Duchamp, par la coupure de deux continuums 3-dimensionnels, par
exemple lintersection ( angle obtus) de deux miroirs, laquelle reprsente
lintersection de deux espaces virtuels le long dun plan-charnire .
Pour lil3 dans lespace3, ce plan-charnire nest visible qu la coupure
avec lespace3, cest--dire lintersection ligne des deux glaces. = Le plancharnire des 2 espaces3 se cache derrire cette ligne et limpression est
nette pour lil3 qui se dplace de droite gauche sans pouvoir jamais
saisir un peu [?] de ce plan (DDS, 131). Langle, ligne brise, est donc
ici le plan bris (la charnire) dintersection de deux espaces3 dans
le continuum ; et le sommet de cet angle est une surface ; mais dans
lespace tridimensionnel de la perception visuelle, cette surface ne sera
perue que comme la ligne commune aux deux plans du miroir biface.
De mme que le sommet dun angle est un lment qui appartient indiscernablement au moins deux continuums unidimensionnels, les deux
cts de langle, de mme la charnire 4-dimensionnelle est un lment
qui appartient au moins deux continuums tridimensionnels (les deux
espaces virtuels rflchis dans les deux faces du miroir).
Mtamorphoses des formes reconnaissables au moyen dun oprateur
de dissimilation , celui de la coupure dedekindienne : la simple addition
dune coupure (ou dimension) supplmentaire vient dgager lobjet
spatial de son identit gomtrique ; elle fait apercevoir ( quelle facult ?),
dans linfinit des miroirs qui correspondent autant dadjonctions
dune coupure, la srie des autres objets que cet objet est aussi : virtualit
comme 4 dimension : non pas la Ralit sous lapparence sensorielle,
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On which Duchamp: an area that can only be cut by 3-dimensional

continua will be a continuum in four dimensions. Indeed a space is called
tri-dimensional when an element (or line) of a 2-dimensional continuum
(or surface) belongs both to this continuum and to a different one: the
surface in question is intersected by a line with any other surface traced in
this space. You would say likewise that a region is quadri-dimensional
when an element (or surface) of a 3-dimensional continuum (or volume)
belongs both to this continuum and to a different one (to a different volume). The cutting power, i.e., the property of a continuum of being necessarily in intersection with all the continua of the same order, is therefore
no longer exercised by the surface, but by the volume.
Thus the image of a 4-dimensional angle might be given, thinks
Duchamp, by the cutting of two 3-dimensional continua, for example
the intersection (at an obtuse angle) of two mirrors, this intersection
representing that of two virtual spaces along a hinge-plane. For the
eye3 in space3, this hinge-plane is only visible at the break with space3,
i.e., the line of intersection of the two mirrors. = The plane-hinge of the
two spaces3 is hidden behind this line and the impression is clear for the
eye3 which is moving from right to left without ever being able to grasp
a little [?] of this plane (DDS, 131). The angle, a broken line, is thus here
the broken plane (the hinge) of intersection of two spaces3 in the
continuum, and the summit of this angle is a surface. But in the tridimensional space of visual perception, this surface will be perceived only
as the line common to the two planes of the two-sided mirror. Just as the
apex of an angle is an element that belongs indistinguishably to at least
two uni-dimensional continua, the two sides of the angle, so likewise
the 4-dimensional hinge is an element that belongs to at least two tridimensional continua (the two virtual spaces reflected in the two faces of
the mirror).
Metamorphoses of the forms recognizable by means of an operator
of dissimilation, that of the Dedekindian cut: the simple addition of
a supplementary cut (or dimension) has the effect of disengaging the
spatial object from its geometrical identity; it causes to be perceived (but
by what faculty?), in the infinity of mirrors that correspond to as many
adjuncts to a break, the series of other objects that this object also is: virtuality as a 4th dimension: not Reality under its sensory appearance, but the
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mais la reprsentation virtuelle dun volume (analogue sa rflexion dans

un miroir) (DDS, 140).
Lexplication de Poincar-Dedekind parat si bonne Duchamp
( Lexplication de Poincar des continus n-dimensions par la coupure
des continus n-1 dimensions nest pas en dfaut [DDS, 138] mais
mdiocre Bourbaki) quil la dclare seule capable de justifier le nom
de quatrime dimension donn au continuum des images virtuelles : la
coupure dedekendienne ne peut y tre effectue, dit-il, quau moyen dun
objet 3-dimensionnel considr dans son infinit gomtrique (DDS, 138).
Traduction irrversible
cette virtualit sattache une proprit singulire : tout objet gomtrique ordinaire est la projection (ou lanalogue) en espace3 du mme
objet en espace4. Mais maint aspect de lobjet 4-dimensionnel na aucun
analogue dans lespace perceptif. Ici la dissimilation rsiste la rversibilit. Quon imagine ce monstre : deux langues entretenant un rapport
analogue aux deux espaces ! On pourrait toujours traduire des termes
ou noncs de la langue A en langue B, mais non linverse.
la recherche dun dictionnaire pour la partie crite du Verre ,
Duchamp envisage plusieurs procds ; ils ont tous une porte analogue
celui de laddition (ou soustraction) dune coupure un continuum spatial.
Parcourir un dictionnaire / et raturer tous les mots indsirables . / Peuttre en rajouter quelques-uns. / Quelquefois remplacer les mots raturs par
un autre. (DDS, 110). Ou bien : Faire une liste de / noms propres franais /
ou anglais (ou autre langue) / ou mlangs / avec prnoms / (ordre alphabtique ou / non), etc. (DDS, 111). Ou : 10 mots trouvs en ouvrant au
hasard le dictionnaire par A / d par B / Ces 2 sets de 10 mots ont la
mme diffrence de personnalit que si les 10 mots avaient t crits / par
A et par B avec une intention. // Ou bien, peu importe ; il y aurait des cas o
cette personnalit / peut disparatre dans A et dans B. Cela est le meilleur
/ cas et le plus difficile (DDS, 110). Ou encore : Prendre un dictionnaire Larousse et copier tous les mots dits abstraits, cad / qui naient pas
de rfrence concrte. // Composer un signe schmatique dsignant chacun de / ces mots (ce signe peut tre compos avec les stoppages-talon). //
Ces signes doivent tre considrs comme les / lettres du nouvel alphabet
(DDS, 48).
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virtual representation of a volume (analogous to its reflection in a mirror) (DDS, 140).

The Poincar-Dedekind explanation seems so good to Duchamp
(Poincars explanation about n-dimensional continua by the cutting
of them by n-1-dimensional continua is not in error [DDS, 138] though it
seems mediocre to Bourbaki) that he declares it to be the only one capable
of justifying the name of fourth dimension given to the continuum of
virtual images. The Dedekindian cut can only be effective there, he says,
by means of a 3-dimensional object considered in its geometrical infinity (DDS,
138).
Irreversible translation
To this virtuality is attached a singular property: any ordinary geometric
object is the projection (or the analogue) in space3 of the same object in
space4. But many aspects of the 4-dimensional object have no analogue
in perceptible space. Here dissimilation resists reversibility. Just imagine
this monster: two languages standing in the same relation to each other
as these two spaces! One would always be able to translate terms or
statements from language A into language B, but not the reverse.
In searching for a dictionary for the written part of the Glass, Duchamp
envisages several procedures; all of them have a content analogous to that
of the addition (or subtraction) of a cut to a spatial continuum. To go
through a dictionary / and cross out all the undesirable words. / Perhaps
add some others. / Sometimes replace the crossed-out words by another
one (DDS, 110). Or else: Make a list of / French proper nouns, / or English ones
(or in another language) / or mixed together / with first-names / (in alphabetical order or / not), etc.(DDS, 111). Or: 10 words found by opening the
dictionary at random at A / ditto at B / These two sets of 10 words have
the same difference of personality as if the 10 words had been written / by A
and by B with an intention.// Or else, it matters little; there would be cases
where this personality / can disappear in A and in B. That is the best / case
and the most difficult(DDS, 110). Or again: Take a Larousse dictionary
and copy out all the so-called abstract words, ie / the ones which have no
concrete reference. // Compose a schematic sign indicating each of / these
words (this sign can be composed of the standard stoppages). // These signs
must be considered to be the letters of the new alphabet (DDS, 48).
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Selon une Note (DDS, 110), la fabrication de ces signes pourrait encore
tre confie la photographie : on ferait de trs gros plans de parties de
grands objets ; on ferait correspondre chaque clich ainsi dpouill de
toute valeur faciale (figurative, reconnaissable) un groupe de mots ;
et de tous ces signes on ferait un dictionnaire, une sorte dcriture
compose de signes dj mancips du baby talk de toutes les langues
ordinaires (DDS, 111). La photographie par Man Ray de llevage de
poussire est lun de ces signes. Dans une autre Note (DDS, 109), ces
signes sont imagins comme des fiches portant des figures lmentaires comme le point, la ligne, le rond, etc..
Les effets recherchs et obtenus par ces oprations translangagires,
Duchamp les pointe ainsi : Son de cette langue, est-elle parlable ? / Non
(DDS, 109) ; Cet alphabet ne convient qu lcriture de ce tableau / trs
probablement (DDS, 48). Soit des effets de singularit et de retard dans la
communication, effets dislogiques. Ils atteignent la perfection dans cette
proprit : dune langue quon puisse / dans ses lments traduire dans /
des langues connues mais qui / ne puisse pas, rciproquement, / exprimer la
traduction de / mots franais ou autres, ou de phrases / franaises ou autres
(DDS, 109). Cest la mme relation monstrueuse qui spare et lie, comme
un regret, les espaces n- et n + 1-dimensionnels : on va de lun lautre, on
nen revient pas compltement. Ainsi le possible, aussi dit virtuel, est situ
pas comme contraire dimpossible / ni comme relatif probable / ni
comme subordonn vraisemblable , il est seulement / un mordant
physique [genre vitriol] / brlant toute esthtique et callistique (DDS, 104).
Le quadridimensionnel est la force qui corrode lespace visuel, comme lcriture des macrosmes ronge les signes du bavardage.
Dans le contact avec cet autre espace, avec cette autre langue, on ne
peut tre que bte : figures invisibles, noncs intelligibles. Un il2 /
naura dune perspective3 / quune perception tactile. / Il devra se promener dun point un autre et mesurer les distances, Il naura pas vue
densemble / comme lil3. Par analogisme, perception promenade de /
lil3 pour la perspective4 (DDS, 125). Le contraire de la stupidit rtinienne nest pas lintelligence, cest cette grande btise de limpouvoir.
Lintelligence dont un M. Teste se prvaut est simplement la stupidit
quand elle en vient prtendre. Teste nest que mari ; testicule, il pense
avoir parcouru entirement lespace de son pouse : relisons la Lettre de
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According to a Note (DDS, 10), the making of these signs might yet be
entrusted to photography: one would take very large shots of parts of
large objects; one would make each of these negatives thus stripped of
all face value (figurative or recognizable value) correspond to a group of
words; and out of all these signs one would make a dictionary, a sort of
writing, composed of signs already emancipated from the baby talk
of all the ordinary languages (DDS, 111). Man Rays photograph, Dust
Breeding, would be one of these signs. In another Note (DDS, 109), these
signs are imagined as slips of paper bearing elementary figures like the
point, the line, the circle, etc.
The effects sought after and obtained by these trans-language operations are indicated thus by Duchamp: Sound of this language, is it
speakable? / No (DDS, 109); This alphabet suits only the writing of this
picture, / most probably (DDS, 48). That is to say, effects of singularity
and retardation in communication, dyslogical effects. They attain perfection in this property: of a language which one can / translate in its elements / into known languages but which / cannot, reciprocally, / express
the translation of / French words or others, or French / phrases or others
(DDS, 109). Its the same monstrous relation that separates and links, like a
regret, the n-dimensional and n+1-dimensional spaces: you go from one to
the other, and you never completely get back. Thus the possible, also called
the virtual, is situated not as the contrary of impossible / nor as relative
to probable / nor as subordinated to plausible, it is only / a physical corrosive [of the vitriol type] / burning any aesthetics and callistics (DDS, 104).
The quadri-dimensional is the force that corrodes visual space, just as
writing with macro-semes eats away the chatterbox signs.
In the contact with this different space, with this different language,
one cannot but be stupid: invisible figures, unintelligible statements.
An eye2 / will have only a tactile perception / of a perspective3. It will have
to go walking from one point to another and measure the distances. /
It will not have an overall view / like the eye3. By analogy, the eye3 has a
walking-perception of perspective4 (DDS, 125). The opposite of retinal
stupidity is not intelligence; its this great stupidity of non-power. The
intelligence that a Monsieur Teste prides himself on is simply stupidity
coming to have pretensions. Teste is merely married; a testicle, he thinks he
has entirely covered the space of his wife: let us read again the letter of
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Madame milie Teste ! Le clibataire a des intentions, le mari des prtentions : tous deux stupides dans leur intelligence. Seul le-la mari(e)clibataire atteint la btise, la promenade.
cho la wandering-perception de la Note cite : Je crois recommandable, pour tablir les diverses modalits de lactivit de pense, de ne pas
utiliser dabord la relation la conscience, et de qualifier les day-dreams aussi
bien que les chanes de pense tudies par Varendonck, comme un penser
fantasmatique ou de libre promenade (as freely wandering or fantastic thinking), par opposition une rflexion oriente intentionnellement. 11
Tout couple est le couplage dun espace mari(e) et dun espace clibataire par le moyen dun verre miroirique ; la traverse de celui-ci peut
se faire en changeant de dimension, irrversiblement ; cette irrversibilit nest pas rversible. Lespace passionnel est fait de cet accouplement.
Lunifier sous lgide du thme de la castration est une prtention imprialiste, seulement stupide.
Ligne miroirique
La stupidit intelligente ne peut pas imaginer que dans lautre face du
miroir, ce quelle conoit comme une ligne devient un point aussi, et que
sa ligne na pas plus de coupant (de coupaison en rserve ) dans
lespace virtuel quun point dans le rel. Elle ignore pareillement que les
formes principales de lappareil ou / ustensile clibataire sont imparfaites. /
Rectangle, cercle, carr, paralllipipde, anse symtrique ; demi-sphre
(DDS, 120).
Les figures de la gomtrie euclidienne qui ne cessent dexercer leur
pouvoir dexactitude stupide sur limagination technique, politique,
plastique et thorique depuis des sicles, si on les situe partir de lespace
dinfinitivation des images virtuelles, nen sont que des formes imparfaites ; leur rgularit, comme tout lheure celle des espacements dans
le disque de lappareil chronophotographique, constitue leur stupidit,
elle atteste leur asservissement au corps du mens, leur mensuration .
Dmensures, les figures de la partie suprieure du Verre donneraient des
exemples de formes principales libres (libres) (DDS, 66-67 et 120).
Le Verre figure en effet la machine dispective. Lespace de la partie
11

Freud, Prface ldition anglaise de : J. Varendonck, The Psychology of Day-Dreams, London, Allen and
Unwin, 1927, Gesammelte Werke, XIII, 440.

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Madame Emilie Teste! The bachelor has intentions, the married man has
pretensions: both are stupid in their intelligence. Only the married man/
woman-bachelor/spinster attains stupidity, attains walking.13
Echo of the wandering-perception* of the quoted Note: I think it is to be
recommended, in order to establish the diverse modalities of the activity
of thought, that one does not use at first the relation to consciousness,
and that one qualifies day-dreams* as well as the thought-chains studied
by Varendonck (as freely wandering or fantastic thinking)* by opposition to an
intentionally oriented reflection.14
Any couple is the coupling of a married space and a Bachelor space
by means of a mirrorish glass; the crossing of this glass can be done by
changing dimension, irreversibly; this irreversibility is not reversible. The
space of passion is made by this coupling. To unify it under the aegis of
the theme of castration is an imperialist pretension, and is merely stupid.
Mirrorish line
Intelligent stupidity cannot imagine that in the other face of the mirror,
what it conceives as a line becomes a point also, and that its line has no
intersecter (not cutting in reserve) in the virtual space, any more than
a point has in the real. It likewise does not know that the principal forms
of the bachelor apparatus or / ustensil are imperfect. / Rectangle, circle,
square, parallelipiped, symmetrical loop; hemisphere (DDS, 120).
The figures of Euclidean geometry have never ceased to exercise their
power of stupid exactitude over our technical, political, plastic, and theoretical imagination for centuries. But if we situate them in relation to the
space of infinitization of virtual images, they are only imperfect forms
of it; their regularity, like just now that of the spacings in the disc of the
time-lapse camera, constitutes their stupidity; it attests to their enslavement to the body of the mens, their measuration. Once unmeasured, the
figures of the upper part of the Glass would give examples of principal
free (liberated) forms (DDS, 66-67 and 120).
The Glass represents in effect the dispective machine. The space of the
lower part, the Bachelor apparatus, is governed by classical perspective.
13
14

Seul le-la mari(e)-clibataire [translators note].

Freud, Preface to the English edition in J. Varendonck, The Psychology of Day-Dreams,
London, Allen and Unwin, 1927, Gesammelte Werke, XIII, 440.

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infrieure, appareil clibataire, est rgi par la perspective classique, les

figures qui y sont places peuvent tre analyses pour elles-mmes selon
plan et lvation (ce qui est fait par Duchamp lui-mme) (DDS, 60-61) ;
sur le Verre elles sont reprsentes selon leur ordonnance un point de
fuite, lui-mme plac comme il se doit sur une ligne dhorizon, cette
dernire forme par le bord infrieur des rgles de verre sparant les deux
rgions.
Or les orthogonales de la rgion clibataire qui viennent se rejoindre
ce point de fuite (soit au bord de lespace de la Marie) sont dans la
mme position que la ligne perpendiculaire la surface du miroir, dont
Duchamp imagine la mtamorphose en point quand elle se prolonge audel de cette surface : Pour parler incorrectement, la / ligne semblant /
sarrter au plan de la glace / devrait simplement la / traverser et continuer
linfini / dans son continu 3 dim ; / Elle nentrerait pas / dans le continu
4 dim ; il / la contiendrait sans / quelle le coupe. (Comme le point est /
contenu dans le plan sans / le couper) (DDS, 129). Si elles passaient de
lautre ct de lhorizon, cest--dire dans la rgion suprieure du Verre,
les orthogonales clibataires y seraient contenues, mais en y perdant une
puissance de coupure ; lil 3-dimensionnel ne pourrait pas les reconnatre, ni mme les identifier : il clibataire ttonnant dans le labyrinthe
des quatre dimensions. Ce changement de puissance (cette perte de pouvoir) est indiqu par la mutation des neuf Moules et Tubes capillaires du
bas en les neuf Tirs du haut : volumes et lignes devant points.
La transformation est soigneusement labore propos de l effet
Wilson-Lincoln que subissent les lments qui passent du bas au haut
du Verre ; cet effet combine lincongruence kantienne de la droite et de
la gauche avec la virtualit dedekindienne : Renvoi miroirique. Chaque
goutte / passera les trois plans lhorizon / entre le perspectif et le gomtral de deux figures qui seront / indiques ces 3 plans par le systme
Wilson-Lincoln (cad / semblables aux portraits qui regards de gauche
donnent / Wilson regards de droite donnent Lincoln) / vue de droite la
figure pourra donner un carr par exemple / de face et vue de [gauche] elle
pourra donner le mme carr vu en perspective. // Les gouttes miroiriques
pas les gouttes mme / mais leur image passent entre ces 2 tats / de la
mme figure (carr dans cet exemple) (DDS, 93). Vacillement de lespace
sur deux positions incongruentes ou sur deux dimensionnalits ; distopie.
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The figures that are placed there can be analyzed for themselves according to a plan and elevation (and this is done by Duchamp himself) (DDS,
60-61); on the Glass they are represented according to their orderliness in
relation to a vanishing point, itself placed (as is fitting) on a horizon line
formed by the lower edge of the glass rulers separating the two regions.
Now the orthogonals of the Bachelor region that meet up again at this
vanishing point (that is, at the edge of the space of the Bride) are in the
same position as the line perpendicular to the surface of the mirror, which
Duchamp imagines metamorphosed into a point when it is prolonged
through the other side of this surface: To speak incorrectly, the / line,
seeming / to stop at the plane of the mirror, / ought simply to traverse /
it and continue to infinity / in its 3-dim continuum; / It would not enter
/ the 4-dim continuum; it / would contain it without / being cut by it. (As
the point is / contained in the plane without / cutting it) (DDS, 129). If
they pass to the other side of the horizon, i.e., into the upper region of the
Glass, the Bachelor orthogonals would be contained there, but would lose
one power of cutting; the 3-dimensional eye would not be able to recognize them nor even identify them: a Bachelor eye groping in the labyrinth
of the four dimensions. This change of exponential power (this loss of
strength) is indicated by the mutation of the nine Molds and Capillary
Tubes of the bottom into the nine Fired Shots of the top: volumes and
lines in front of points.
The transformation is carefully elaborated in relation to the WilsonLincoln effect undergone by the elements that pass from the bottom
to the top of the Glass; this effect combines the Kantian incongruence of
the right and left with the Dedekindian virtuality: Mirrorish sendingback. Each drop / will pass the three planes at the horizon / between the
perspective and the geometral of two figures which will be / indicated on
these 3 planes by the Wilson-Lincoln system (ie, / similar to the portraits
which, when viewed from the left, give / Wilson, and from the right,
Lincoln) / seen from the right the figure will be able to give a square, for
example, / head-on, and seen from [the left] it can give the same square
seen in perspective. // The mirrorish drops not the drops even / but their
image, pass between these 2 states / of the same figure (square in this
example) (DDS, 93). A vacillation of space between two incongruent positions or two dimensionalities, dystopia.
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Le cube en perspective qui structure lespace clibataire selon la

construction la plus lgitime est donc arrt par lhorizon des barres
mdianes ; cette limite darrt, Duchamp la conoit comme un refroidisseur, un ralentisseur, un retardeur. Ladjonction dune dimension (coupure) supplmentaire fait de cette ligne une sorte de transformateur, qui
fabrique de llectricit en large (DDS, 36). Autour delle lespace
hsite sur son identit, tout le Verre se met flotter.
Elle est ce quelle parat vue de face par le regardeur : une barre de maintien sparant deux parties dune grande pice de verre ( apparence ) ;12
elle est aussi ce quelle paratrait vue den bas par un observateur clibataire plac dans lespace perspectiviste : une limite son champ de vision
(premire apparition ) ; elle est encore voir (deuxime apparition )
en plan, de haut, comme si le Verre tait couch nos pieds, comme
le trac dune paroi miroirique dresse entre lespace perspectiviste
occup par lappareil clibataire et ltendue libre o se balance le
squelette de la Marie.
Mais ce nest pas encore si simple. Perspectiviste et libr , sont-ce
dautres mots pour dire respectivement espace 3- et espace 4-dimensionnel, espace du bas et espace du haut ? Dmenti formel une telle
hypothse : Le Pendu femelle / est la forme / en perspective ordinaire /
dun Pendu femelle / dont on pourrait peut-tre / essayer de retrouver la
vraie forme // Cela venant de ce que / nimporte quelle / forme est la
perspective / dune autre forme / selon certain point de fuite / et certaine
distance (DDS, 69).
Les deux parties du Verre prsentent toutes deux des formes dans un
espace tridimensionnel. Mais elles sont fortement incongruentes les unes
aux autres, dans un sens qui excde celui que Kant avait en vue. Les
formes du haut gauche (Pendu femelle) relvent dune organisation
plutt cubiste, tridimensionnelle, mais clate . En haut et droite,
on affaire une modulation abstraite de la profondeur, obtenue par
flottement (flottement des carrs de gaze au vent, qui donne la silhouette
des Pistons) ou par interception (cran qui arrte la projection des Tirs).
Lunit des deux groupes de formes du haut tant chercher dans une
figure 4-dimensionnelle. En bas les objets clibataires sont construits
12

En gnral le tableau est lapparition dune apparence (DDS, 45).

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The cube in perspective, which structures the Bachelor space according to the most legitimate construction, is thus arrested by the horizon
of the median bars; Duchamp conceives this limit of arrest as a cooler, a
decelerator, a retardant. The adjunction of a supplementary dimension (a
cut) makes this line into a sort of transformer, which produces electricity in breadth (DDS, 36). Around it, space hesitates about its identity; the
whole Glass starts to float.
The line is what it seems, when seen from the front by the spectator: a supporting bar separating two parts of a large piece of glass
(appearance).15 It is also what it would seem to be when seen from below
by a Bachelor observer placed in the perspectivist space: a limit to his field
of vision (first apparition); it is still to be seen (second apparition)
from above, in a plane view, as if the Glass were lying down at our feet,
like the tracing of a mirrorish partition raised between the perspectivist
space occupied by the Bachelor apparatus and the liberated area where
the skeleton of the Bride is balanced.
But its not yet so simple. Perspectivist and liberated: Are these just
other words to say, respectively, 3- and 4-dimensional space, space of the
bottom and space of the top? A formal denial of this hypothesis: The
Pendu femelle / is the form / in ordinary perspective / of a Pendu femelle / whose
true form / we might perhaps try to find // This comes from the fact that
/ any form at all / is the perspective / of another form / according to a certain vanishing-point / and a certain distance (DDS, 69).
The two parts of the Glass both present forms in a tri-dimensional
space. But they are strongly incongruent with each other, in a sense that
exceed the one that Kant had in view. The forms of the top left (Pendu
femelle) stem from an organization that is somewhat cubist, tri-dimensional, but exploded. Above and to the right, we are dealing with an
abstract modulation of depth, obtained by a floating (the floating of the
squares of gauze in the wind, which gives the silhouette of the Pistons)
or by interception (a screen that arrests the projection of the Fired
Shots). The unity of the two groups of forms of the top can be sought in a
4-dimensional figure. Down below, the Bachelor objects are constructed
according to the legitimate perspective, certainly; but even the latter must

15

In general the picture is the apparition of an appearance (DDS, 45).

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selon la perspective lgitime, certes ; mais celle-ci mme doit tre comprise comme une dispective : Par la perspective (ou tout autre moyen
conventionnel / canons) les lignes, le dessin sont forcs et / perdent
l peu prs du toujours possible / avec en plus lironie davoir choisi
le corps ou objet / primitif, qui devient invitablement selon cette perspective / (ou autre convention) la (DDS, 55). La quoi ? La rien :
il devient, il devient dissemblable lui-mme. Cela suffit pour que la
construction prtendue lgitime puisse tre prise elle aussi comme une
opration dissimilante. Ide qui sera mise en uvre dans tant donns
Ide trs simple : cette construction consiste traiter le plan-support de la
peinture (bidimensionnel) en volume tridimensionnel, ou le volume de
lobjet comme sil tait plat, donc ajouter (ou retirer) une coupure .
Faire un tableau de charnire (DDS, 42). la diffrence de
ces lignes quon trouve dans des gravures dEscher ou des dessins de
Steinberg, qui valent tantt comme hauteurs, tantt comme profondeurs, tantt comme largeurs selon le contexte plastique ou la position
de lobservateur, mais qui restent situes dans un espace homogne, la
charnire de Duchamp narticule pas des directions dun mme espace,
elle reprsente lil3 la surface selon laquelle deux volumes3 se coupent dans lespace 4-dimensionnel. Ni limite dune finitude, ni barre du
signifiant, ni barrire de refoulement ; mais surface dissimule en ligne,
faisant charnire entre deux volumes tridimensionnels incongruents,
dont le recouvrement (la commensurabilit), sil en est un, ne pourrait avoir lieu que dans lespace 4-dimensionnel o lun et lautre ont
mme puissance de coupures que des plans dans lespace 3-dimensionnel ; encore ce lieu, inassignable par quiconque, nen est-il pas un pour
notre intuition.
quel point tout cela excde les antiennes sur le spculaire, issues dune
logique, dune esthtique et dune politique de la reprsentation qui narrivent pas vaincre Platon et la nostalgique Similitudo augustinienne,
faut-il le dire ? Et combien aussi cela tourne la tte la communicante
logique des structures et des signes ! Linconscient que figure le Grand
Verre ne se parle pas comme en un langage ni ne se reprsente comme sur
un thtre, il se fictionne dans des paradoxes.

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be understood as a dispective: By perspective (or any other conventional

means / canons) the lines, the drawing are forced and / lose the almost of
the still possible / with in addition the irony of having chosen the primitive / body or object, which inevitably becomes according to this perspective / (or other convention) the (DDS, 55). The what? The nothing it
becomes, it becomes dissimilar to itself. This is enough for the supposedly
legitimate construction to be able to be taken, it too, as a dissimilating
operation. An idea that will be put to work in Given. A very simple idea:
this construction consists in treating the (bi-dimensional) plane support
of the picture as a tri-dimensional volume, or the volume of the object as
if it was flat, therefore to add (or retract) one cut.
To make a hinge-picture (DDS, 42). Unlike those lines that you find
in the engravings of Escher or the drawings of Steinberg, which are
sometimes valid as heights, sometimes as depths, sometimes as widths,
depending on the plastic context or the position of the observer, but
which remain situated in a homogeneous space, Duchamps hinge does
not articulate the directions of one and the same space. It represents
to the eye3 the surface according to which two volumes3 intersect in
4-dimensional space. Neither limit of a finitude, nor bar of the signifier, nor repression barrier, but surface dissimulated as a line, making a
hinge between two incongruent tri-dimensional volumes, whose overlap (whose commensurability), if there is one, could take place only in
4-dimensional space where both have the same exponential power of cuts
as planes in 3-dimensional space. Yet this place, unassignable by anybody
at all, is not a place for our intuition.
All this goes beyond the chanted refrains on the specular, issuing forth
from a logic, an aesthetics, and a politics of representation that do not
manage to vanquish Plato and the nostalgic Similitudo of Augustine. At
which point is it necessary to say this? And how greatly this overturns the
communicating logic of structures and signs! The unconscious figured by
the Large Glass is not spoken as a language or represented as theater; it is
fictioned in paradoxes.

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Beyond sex
[] Le dernier tat de cette marie / nu avant la jouissance qui la /
[fait dchoir, biff] ferait dchoir (fera dchoir) / graphiquement, ncessit dexprimer / dune faon compltement diffrente du / reste du
tableau, cet panouissement (DDS, 64).
Jouissance = dchance ? Comment entendre la phrase ? Dun moraliste de la rpression sexuelle ? Dun libertin intress au pouvoir plutt
quaux intensits ? Dun de ces philosophes qui concoivent le dsir barr
et la jouissance impossible ? (En faveur de la dernire hypothse, ces mots
de la Bote de 1914, peut-tre : On na que : pour femelle la pissotire
et on en vit (DDS, 37). Non, la jouissance [fait] ferait fera dchoir la
femme pour autant quelle la dote dune identit, celle de son sexe ;
et du mme coup, lhomme du sien .
Que veulent les clibataires, ces petits soldats rigs par leur sperme
gazeux terroriste ? Supprimer lautre espace, ou plutt la dissimilation,
imposer aux puissances de lespace monstrueux luniforme des machines
productives-destructives. Alors les femmes ne seraient que lautre moiti
des hommes, et les hommes que leurs matres , cest--dire des pices
comme elles dans la mgamachine de reproduction. La stupidit de lintelligence se tient toute dans cette ide dune rconciliation, dune totalisation des espaces. Elle nentend laltrit que comme une opposition, et
elle propose ses services pour la rsorber dialectiquement. Dans le dsir
masculin de faire jouir la femme, il y a bien pire que la vanit, il y a lassimilation. Ce nest pas tant tu me devras aussi ta jouissance que nous
nous compltons, tu es mon arbre de transmission, je suis ton moteur,
nous sommes une machine-outil .
La mise nu de la marie atteste quoi au juste ? Que le corps fmininmasculin (non pas le corps de la femme, de lhomme) est un espace insaisissable, que ce quon croit tre la sexualit est un principe de dissimilation, et que tout pouvoir essaie de dtruire celui-ci. Bien plus : que cet
essai, mme , ne peut que rvler ce mme principe. Alors mme quils
sapprtent conqurir lespace blanc, les larbins de la mgamachine en
dvoilent la puissance dissimilante.
Mumford dit que la mgamachine, le grand appareil rptitif, est une
machine invisible, parce que ses composantes sont ncessairement spares

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Beyond sex*
[] The last state of this bride / laid bare prior to the bliss which / [makes
her fall, scratched out] would make her / fall (will make her fall) / graphically, necessity to express / in a completely different way from the / rest of
the picture, this blossoming out (DDS, 64).
Bliss = decline? How are we to understand this sentence? As that of a
moralist of sexual repression? Of a libertine interested in power rather
than in intensities? Of one of those philosophers who conceive desire as
barred and bliss impossible? (In favor of the last hypothesis, these words
of the Box of 1914, perhaps: We have only: as a female the urinal and
we live from it [DDS, 37]). No, bliss [makes] would make will make the
woman fall inasmuch as she endows it with an identity, that of her sex;
and thereby endows the man with his.
What do the Bachelors want, these little soldiers erected by their terrorist gaseous sperm? To suppress the other space, or rather dissimilation, to impose on the powers of the monstrous space the uniform of the
productive-destructive machines. So women would be only the other half
of men, and men only their masters, i.e., parts like them in the megamachine of reproduction. The stupidity of intelligence is contained in
its entirety in this idea of a reconciliation, of a totalization of the spaces.
It understands alterity only as an opposition, and it offers its services for
reabsorbing it dialectically. In the male desire to make the woman have
pleasure, there is something much worse than vanity: there is assimilation. Its not so much You will owe me your bliss as well, but rather We
complete and complement each other; you are my propeller shaft, I am
your motor; we are a machine tool.
The laying bare of the Bride attests what, exactly? That the femininemasculine body (not the body of the woman, of the man) is an ungraspable
space; what we thought sexuality was is a principle of dissimilation, and
all power seeks to destroy it. Much more: even this essay cannot but
reveal this same principle. Even when they prepare themselves to conquer
the white space, the flunkeys of the megamachine unveil its dissimilating
power.
Mumford says that the megamachine, the great repetitive apparatus,
is an invisible machine, because its components are necessarily separated

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dans lespace.13 Mais cette sparation nest videmment pas dissimilante.

II suffit quun code partag existe qui permette tous les lments de la
machine de traduire les ordres en effet contrlables, ainsi que des rserves
dnergie utilisables pour cette traduction et pour lexcution. Toute terreur est linscription de ce code et du dispositif connexe de capture et utilisation de lnergie aux fins de reproduction, sur le corps fminin-masculin.
On imagine quau niveau de lexcution, les apports dnergie qui
sont ncessaires cette dernire soient dtourns, drouts, retourns,
retards : Spartacus, toutes les crosses en lair, les anamorphoses, toutes les
machinations dissimilantes. Ce nest pas lesthtisme de la dconstruction,
ngation de la grosse dialectique ; ce sont les pulsions partielles jouant
leur jeu sans gard pour lorganon terroriste : la dissipation. La violence
djoue la terreur comme la singularit la totalit, elle sy joue, comme le
4-dimensionnel se joue dans le 3-dimensionnel et le djoue. Son non-sens
est affirmativement une et des inventions de puissance (de coupures )
qui excdent toute rptition mcanique, qui veulent que se rpte non
le dsordre, dont elles nont que faire, cest une catgorie du centralisme,
mais des vnements. Le corps passionnel ne peut pas se rendre aux tches
dexcution reproductive, il ruse, et laisse le pouvoir amchanos.
Toute laffaire Duchamp passe par les femmes. Dira-t-on que les
femmes sont le principe de la ruse amcanisante, quelles nont pas dme,
quainsi elles chappent au despotique ? Elles seraient la violence, et donc
on les relguerait. Leurs corps tant rductibles mcaniquement, ne les
consacrera-t-on pas la reproduction ou la jouissance, ne sera-ce pas
toute leur morale : ou maries ou prostitues ? Mais alors mme, ajoutera-t-on en toute confiance dialectique, elles ne cessent dtre puissantes
en dissipation, parce quelles sont leurs corps, comme dit Klossowski. Les
supplment dnergie quelles captent, elles ne les assimilent pas. Elles
ne fabriquent pas de lidentit, la terreur nest pas leur fort, elles en ont
peur. Les femmes fuient comme des plans deau. Toutes les ruses sont de
fuite. Les femmes sont le principe de disfonctionnement. Dira-t-on cela ?
Mais les femmes sont aussi du sexe masculin. Et la terreur consiste
entre autres, si toute la question passe par les femmes, identifier le principe de disfonctionnement avec la diffrence des sexes. Celle-ci permet
de localiser et de tenir lcart toute ruse en tant que trait fminin .
13

The Myth of the Machine, New York, 1966, vol. I, 188 sq.

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in space.16 But this separation is obviously not dissimilating. Its enough

for a shared code to exist that would allow all the elements of the machine
to translate orders that are in effect controllable, as well as reserves of
energy usable for this translation and for carrying them out. All terror is
the inscription, on the feminine-masculine body, of this code and of the
closely related device for capturing and utilizing energy for the purposes
of reproduction.
You can imagine that at the level of execution, the supplies of energy
that are necessary for it would be hijacked, put off course, turned back,
retarded: Spartacus, all the rifle butts in the air, anamorphoses, all the
dissimilating machines. This is not the aestheticism of deconstruction,
negation of the gross dialectic; these are partial drives playing their game
without regard for the terrorist organon: dissipation. Violence foils terror
as singularity foils the totality. It is at play in it, just as the 4-dimensional
is at play in the 3-dimensional and foils it. Its non-sense is affirmatively
an-and-some invention(s) of exponential power (of cuts), which go
beyond all mechanical repetition, which want events repeated, not
disorder (which they shun because it is a category of centralism). The body
of passion cannot give itself up to the tasks of carrying out reproduction.
It plays tricks and leaves power amchanos.
The whole Duchamp affair goes via women. Shall we say that women
are the principle of the a-mechanizing cunning, that they have no soul,
and thus they escape the despotic? They would be violence, and so they
would be relegated. Their bodies being mechanically reducible, wont
they be devoted to reproduction or to pleasure, wont that be their whole
morality: either married or prostituted? But even then, shall we add in
full dialectical confidence, they do not cease to be powerful in dissipation,
because they are their bodies, as Klossowski says. The supplements of energy
they capture are not assimilated by them. They do not fabricate identity.
Terror is not their strong point; they are afraid of it. Women flee like
stretches of water. All ruses are those of flight. Women are the principle of
disfunctioning. Shall we say that?
But women are also of the masculine sex. And the terror consists,
among other things, if the whole question passes via women, in identifying the principle of disfunctioning with the difference of the sexes. The

16

The Myth of the Machine, New York, 1966, vol. I, 188.

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Contre cette terreur, Monsieur Marcel se travestit en Mlle Rrose, et travaille les coupures . Passant outre limportance donne la diffrences des sexes, et donc leur rconciliation, il va au-del, beyond sex.
Le sexe nest pas la quatrime dimension. II est tridimensionnel aussi
bien que quardridimensionnel. On peut certes exprimer un par-del le
sexe en le transfrant dans une quatrime dimension [There is, however,
an expression beyond sex which can be transferred into a fourth dimension].
Mais la quatrime dimension nest pas le sexe en tant que tel. Le sexe nest
quun attribut, il peut tre transfr dans une quatrime dimension, mais
il ne constitue pas la dfinition ou le statut de la quatrime dimension.
Le sexe est le sexe. 14 Le sexe, le premier, le deuxime, le troisime, etc.,
est un produit didentification, une fiche de la police des dsirs : ce que
la costruzione legittima fait des espaces passionnels.
Octobre 1974

Charnires
Certaines parties de cette tude ont t publies dans le Catalogue de la rtrospective
Marcel Duchamp expose au Centre National dArt et Culture en fvrier 1977, sous la
responsabilit de Pontus Hulten, Jean Clair et Ulf Linde.
Donner toujours ou presque le pourquoi du choix entre 2 ou plusieurs solutions (par causalit ironique). / / Lironisme daffirmation : diffrences avec lironisme ngateur dpendant
du Rire seulement (DDS, 46).

0. Prambule : Deux ou plusieurs solutions quoi ? De quoi parle-t-il ?

De la ralisation plastique des projets labors dans les Notes. Il sagit
alors du Verre. II y a causalit parce quil faut donner un pourquoi du
choix fait entre plusieurs ralisations possibles. Elle est ironique parce
quil faut inventer, choisir le pourquoi donn. II y a donc un choix
faire dans les pourquoi. Lironie tient dans le renversement : on affirme le
pourquoi du choix (des ralisations), on suggre en outre un choix de ce
14

Entretien avec Arturo Schwarz, cit par celui-ci, in The Complete Works, op. cit. 36, note (cf. la version
franaise, op. cit, 37, note).

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latter allows us to localize and then keep aside all cunning qua feminine trait. Against this terror, Monsieur Marcel transvests himself as
Mademoiselle Rrose and works the cuts. Going beyond the importance
given to the difference of the sexes, and hence to their reconciliation, he goes
beyond, beyond sex.* Sex is not the fourth dimension. It is tridimensional
as much as quadri-dimensional. One can of course express a beyond of sex
by transferring it into the fourth dimension. [There is, however, an expression beyond sex which can be transferred into a fourth dimension.]* But the fourth
dimension is not sex as such. Sex is merely an attribute: it can be transferred to a fourth dimension, but it does not constitute the definition or the
status of the fourth dimension. Sex is sex.17 Sex, the first, the second, the
third, etc., is a product of identification, a file card of the desire-police: it is
what the costruzione legittima makes of the spaces of passion.
October 1974

Hinges
Certain parts of this study were published in the catalogue of the Marcel Duchamp retrospective exhibition at the National Centre of Art and Culture in February 1977, under the direction
of Pontus Hulten, Jean Clair, and Ulf Linde.
To give always or almost the why of the choice between 2 or several solutions (by ironic causality). / / The ironism of affirmation: differences from the negating ironism, depending only on
the Laugh (DDS, 46).

0. Preamble: Two or several solutions to what? Whats he talking about?

About the plastic realization of the projects elaborated in the Notes. So
its about the Glass. There is causality because you have to give a why of
the choice made between several possible realizations. It is ironic because
you have to invent, choose the why that youve given. So there is a choice
to be made among the why. The irony consists in the reversal: you affirm
the why of the choice (of realizations); you suggest furthermore a choice

17

Conversation with Arturo Schwarz, quoted by the latter, in The Complete Works,
op. cit., 36, note.

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pourquoi. Justifier le choix, cest transformer la contingence en ncessit

ou la permission en obligation, passer du cest possible au il faut .
Choisir la justification (du choix), cest rintroduire la contingence dans
lnonciation de la ncessit : il est possible quil faille ; ou la permission dans celle de lobligation : il est permis quon doive . On
transforme le non-sens en sens, et ce sens est lui-mme suspendu un
non-sens.
Encore nest-on pas tenu de donner toujours ce dernier : presque
toujours peut faire laffaire. Presque toujours , cest souvent , le
probable ; toujours , cest le ncessaire. Donc lnonciation du mtanon-sens, ou de la contingence de la loi, est elle-mme rgle par une
disjonction inclusive : cette nonciation, il faut la faire toujours et / ou
presque toujours. En logique dontique, on dira quelle est obligatoire
et/ou (seulement) permise : il est permis et / ou obligatoire de dclarer
permis quon doive . Logique de charnire.
Sattarder en outre linfinitif donner . La valeur de linfinitif peut
tre notionnelle, si on le prend comme la forme verbale la plus neutre,
celle laquelle aucune signification complmentaire de nombre, de
temps, de modalit ne vient sajouter, linverse de formes comme il
donna, tu aurais donn, que nous donnions, etc. Linfinitif est alors pris
comme le degr zro des formes verbales. Mais sa valeur peut galement
tre programmatique : il indique alors une instruction lance anonymement tout rcepteur possible, un ordre excutable par quiconque, une
recommandation gnrale comme dans Agiter avant de sen servir .
Quen est-il ici ?
Deux Notes prcisent cette affaire. Lune sintitule Recettes : obtenir (forme gnrale pour dcrire certaines parties) : / pax. : on obtient
les tirs en / pour obtenir prendre (DDS, 118). Lautre, entirement rature dans loriginal, annonce : Accorder la forme extrieure
(style) avec la tonalit gnrale lemploi de cette logique paradoxale me
semble [illisible] . Les deux observations mettent laccent sur un souci de
forme, qui inspire le style de Duchamp dans les Notes. La forme gnrale
extrieure sera celle de linstruction ( recettes ), mais aussi de la description ( pour dcrire ), soit les deux valeurs susdites du neutre et du
programmatique. (On observe au passage que ces deux valeurs sont rendues ensemble aussi bien par une tournure comme on obtient les tirs
en , qui est celle de la dfinition dite gntique en mathmatique.) La
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of this why. To justify the choice is to transform contingency into necessity or permission into obligation; its to pass from the its possible to
the its necessary. To choose the justification (of the choice) is to reintroduce contingency into the enunciation of necessity: it is possible that it
would be necessary; or permission into that of obligation: its permitted than one must. You transform non-sense into sense, and this sense is
itself hung from a non-sense.
Yet youre not obliged to always give the latter: almost always can do
the job. Almost always, thats often, the probable; always, thats the
necessary. Thus the enunciation of meta-non-sense, or the contingency of
the law, is itself regulated by an inclusive disjunction: you have to make
this enunciation always and/or almost always. In deontic logic, you would
say that it is obligatory and/or (merely) permitted: it is permitted and/or
obligatory to declare it to be permitted that one must.. Hinge logic.
Let us dwell, furthermore, on the infinitive to give. The value of the
infinitive can be notional, if one takes it as the most neutral verbal form,
the one to which no complementary signification of number, of tense,
of modality, has been added, unlike such forms as he gave, you would have
given, that we should give, etc. So the infinitive is taken as the zero degree of
verb forms. But its value can equally be programmatic: it indicates then
an instruction launched anonymously at any possible receiver, an order
executable by anyone at all, a general recommendation like Shake the
bottle before using. Whats meant by it here?
Two Notes explain this business. One is entitled Recipes: to obtain
(general form for describing certain parts): / e.g.: one obtains the fired
shots by / to obtain take. (DDS, 118). The other one, entirely crossed
out in the original, announces: In order to make the external form (style)
agree with the general tonality the use of this paradoxical logic seems
to me to be [illegible]. The two observations emphasize a concern for
form, which inspires Duchamps style in the Notes. The general external
form will be that of the instruction (recipes), but also of description
(in order to describe), that is, the two above-mentioned values of the
neutral and the programmatic. (Observe in passing that these two values
are rendered together as well by a turn of phrase like one obtains the tirs
by, which is that of the so-called genetic definition in mathematics.)
The form of the Notes will thus be maintained in the amphibology of
the two values. The latter is a paradox Aristotle even says sometimes: a
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forme des Notes sera donc maintenue dans lamphibologie des deux
valeurs. Celle-ci est un paradoxe, Aristote dit parfois mme : un paralogisme. Cest cette forme amphibologique (neutre et dontique) qui se
trouvera en accord avec ce quil y a de paradoxal dans la logique mme
de lentreprise. logique de charnire, style de charnire.
Celui-ci sillustre aussitt avec lintroduction du nologisme ironisme
daffirmation . Ironisme reprend causalit ironique , mais le modifie.
Ce mot en -isme dsigne un principe, un genre et une cole. Non pas la
figure de telle nonciation, lantiphrase par exemple, mais un principe
affectant toute nonciation. Non pas une modalit axiologique particulire exprimant le renversement des valeurs, mais un genre entier de discours. Et non pas la trouvaille spontane dun locuteur ventuel, mais un
travail systmatique dont lironie est la fois le moyen et le but, comme
limpression pour lImpressionnisme.
Ce qui fait entre autres que le mot est par lui-mme humoristique : si
elle est laborieuse, lironie mrite-t-elle son nom, est-elle efficace ?
Or justement lironisme ne cherche pas le drle, son efficience ne se
marque pas ce quil provoque le rire. (Duchamp a collabor un journal rigolo, Le Rire ; la majuscule ici en est un rappel, peut-tre.) Le rire
nat de ce que la loi, quelle quelle soit, civile, divine, vitale, est tourne
et vaincue sans coup frir, rendue drisoire dun point de vue qui la surpasse, partir dune position qui en dcouvre la contingence ; tel est ce
quil y a de ngateur dans lironie drle. Telle est, selon Duchamp, linsuffisance du mouvement Dada : Dada-littraire purement ngatif et accusateur ; Dada-littraire sopposait, et, en sopposant, devenait la queue
de ce quoi il sopposait ; Picabia et moi , ajoute-t-il, ce que nous
voulions, cest ouvrir un corridor dhumour [] en toute ignorance ou
indiffrence de ce qui, en art, stait fait avant nous (DDS, 248).
Lironisme daffirmation nest pas transgressif, cest--dire ractionnel.
Il invente des lgislations, il passe des contrats. Il naffronte pas tragicomiquement la loi pour en dnoncer larbitraire. Il aime sa contingence.
Il bricole paisiblement des lois. Et donc il nentre pas dans le champ du
rire et pleurer, ou du moins sil y entre, cest pour dtecter les lois de ces
motions, et les produire et les prouver dans lapathie. Duchamp observe,
dans les deux sens du mot: il respecte ses contrats avec lui-mme, cest
la forme de linstruction observer ; il les suspecte, les examine, les met
sous observation, cest le style de la description.
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paralogism. Its this amphibological form (neutral and deontic) that will
be in agreement with what there is of paradox in the very logic of the
enterprise. For a hinge-logic, a hinge-style.
This style is illustrated at once with the introduction of the neologism
ironism of affirmation. Ironism takes up ironic causality but modifies it.
This word in -ism designates a principle, a genre, and a school. Not the figure
of such-and-such an enunciation, antiphrasis for instance, but a principle
affecting any enunciation. Not a particular axiological modality expressing
the reversal of values, but an entire genre of discourse. And not the spontaneous discovery of a potential speaker, but a systematic work of which irony
is both the means and the goal, as impression is for Impressionism.
Which means among other things that the word is humoristic by itself:
if it is laborious, does irony deserve its name, is it efficacious?
But precisely ironism does not seek what is funny; its efficacy is not
marked by the fact that it provokes laughter. (Duchamp collaborated on a
humorous magazine, Le Rire; the capital letter here on the word Laugh
is a recollection of it, perhaps.) Laughter is born from the way the law,
whatever it be, civil, divine, law of life, is turned aside and defeated without striking a blow, made derisory from a point of view that surpasses it,
starting from a position that discovers its contingency; such is the negating part of funny irony. Such is, according to Duchamp, the insufficiency
of the Dada movement: Literary-Dada purely negative and accusatory;
Literary-Dada opposed, and, by opposing, became the tail of that which
it was opposing; What we wanted, Picabia and I, he adds, was to open
a corridor of humour [] in full ignorance of or indifference to what, in
art, had been done before us (DDS, 248).
The ironism of affirmation is not transgressive, i.e., reactive. It invents
legislations; it makes contracts. It does not tragicomically affront the
law in order to denounce its arbitrariness. It loves the laws contingency.
It calmly botches together some laws. And therefore it does not enter
upon the field of laughter and weeping, or at least, if it does enter there,
its in order to detect the laws of these emotions and produce them and
feel them in apathy. Duchamp observes, in the two senses of the word: he
respects his contracts with himself thats the form of the instruction to
be observed; he suspects them, examines them, puts them under observation thats the style of description.

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en gnral
1. Projet : Par charnire gnrale, on entend un ensemble doprations
approximatives permettant le dmontage dune uvre, le Verre, et le
remontage dune autre, tant donns, partir des lments de la premire. Charnire entre deux tats. Elle ne jouerait pas sur les mmes battants que les Botes ou lApproximation dmontable : les premires contiennent les notes et documents, sporadiques, qui entourent la conception
et la ralisation du Grand Verre ; la seconde, ensemble presque exhaustif
des instructions pour le montage dtant donns, comporte quinze
Oprations destines construire cette uvre partir des pices dtaches sorties des caisses du transporteur. (On ne connat pas de texte
analogue aux Botes pour tant donns) Les oprations, intellectuelles,
imaginatives et plastiques, des Botes se situent en amont de la production du Verre ; celles, purement techniques, de lApproximation supposent une uvre acheve et qui a dj t monte au moins une fois
(do le dmontable ), elles se placent donc en aval de sa production.
Notre charnire viendrait oprer entre la premire charnire, qui articule
les Notes sur le Verre, et la seconde, qui analyse la dernire sculpture au
moyen des dernires instructions. Tout cela trs prsomptueux.
2. Dfinitions : Charnire : groupe doprations, mais agissant par causalit
ironique (DDS, 46). Exemple : Cols alits (1959), plume du Grand Verre
main leve : Duchamp y ajoute au crayon un poteau lectrique et deux
paysages de collines, lun en haut, lautre en bas. Ironie double : 1 collision
du figuratif avec les deux rgions du Verre qui relvent dune ou plusieurs
plastiques toutes diffrentes ; 2 allusion, elle-mme double et htrogne
au travail secret en cours : le paysagisme insolent dtant donns, et le rle
majeur et cach quy jouera llectricit. Cols alits ironiques = charnires.
Celles-ci sont des droites (figures 1 dim) communes au moins deux plans
(2 dim) ceux de leurs battants ; elles constituent laxe de symtrie de ceux-ci
dans lespace (3 dim). On sait que deux figures planes symtriques par
rapport un axe (donc inscrites sur les battants) ne sont pas superposables
dans le 2 dim, mais seulement dans le 3 dim par rotation. De mme la
charnire de symtrie de deux figures 3 dim (par exemple deux polydres,
les deux mains, deux crous semblables pas de vis inverses : exemples que
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in general
1. Project: by general hinge, we understand a set of approximate operations permitting the dismantling of a work, the Glass, and the reassembly
of another, Given, starting from the elements of the first one. A hinge
between two states. It does not play on the same flaps as the Boxes or
the Approximation that can be dismantled: the Boxes contain the (sporadic)
notes and documents that surround the conception and realization of the
Large Glass; the Approximation, an almost exhaustive set of instructions for
assembling Given, comprises fifteen Operations intended to construct this
work starting from the separate parts taken from the packing-cases of the
hauler. (We know of no text analogous to the Boxes for Given.) The operations, intellectual, imaginative, and plastic, of the Boxes are situated
prior to the production of the Glass; those of the Approximation purely
technical ones assume a finished work that has already been set up at
least once (hence that can be dismantled), and are thus placed later
than its production. Our hinge would come to operate between the first
hinge, which articulates the Notes on the Glass, and the second, which
analyzes the last sculpture by means of the last instructions. All that is
very presumptuous.
2. Definitions: Hinge: group of operations, but acting by ironic causality
(DDS, 46). Example: Bedridden Collars (Cols alits, 1959), pen of the Large
Glass in his raised hand: Duchamp adds to it in pencil a power pole and
two landscapes of hills, one on top, one below. Double irony: 1) collision
of the figurative with the two regions of the Glass, which stem from one or
several quite different plastic arts; 2) allusion, itself double and heterogeneous, to the secret work in progress: the insolent landscapism of Given,
and the major and hidden role played in it by electricity. Ironic bedridden
collars = hinges. These are straight lines (1-dim figures) common to at
least two planes (2-dim), those of their flaps; they constitute the axis of
symmetry of these flaps in space (3-dim). We know that two plane figures
that are symmetrical with relation to an axis (hence inscribed on the flaps)
are not superimposable in the 2-dim, but only in the 3-dim by rotation.
Likewise the hinge of symmetry of two 3-dim figures (for example two
polyhedra, the two hands, two similar screws but with opposite threads:
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donne Kant) est un plan : ces deux figures ne sont pas superposables dans
lespace 3 dim (on ne peut enfiler un gant droit dans un gant gauche) ; elles
doivent ltre dans une tendue 4 dim. Kant nomme cette proprit des
symtries incongruence : lespace est humoristique.
3. Exemples : Une charnire en logique serait un oprateur paradoxal, sa
proprit minima serait de faire obstacle tel des grands oprateurs de
congruence, par exemple limplication (si p, alors q), qui est la trs srieuse
causalit logique. Serait-ce le cas de la disjonction inclusive : et/ou ? M.
Marcel et/ou Mlle Rrose. Porte (de la rue Larrey) ouverte et/ou ferme. Si
homme, alors non-femme ; mais : si homme et/ou femme, alors ? La charnire et/ou parat affirmer la symtrie et lincongruence des deux termes.
Un quivalent en thorie des modalits pourrait tre : il est contingent quil
soit ncessaire que ( lironie davoir choisi [contingence] le corps ou objet
primitif, qui devient invitablement [ncessit] selon cette perspective
[ou autre convention] DDS, 55). Un quivalent temporel : un futur
actuel pris comme pass actuel ; thme de la vitesse chez Duchamp, et sa
solution cherche du ct d un temps 2 dim, 3 dim, etc. (DDS,
130). Un quivalent dontique : il est obligatoire de tout permettre. Etc.
4. Pertinence de la charnire pour Duchamp, elle soutient le rcit et surtout le dispositif spatial de La Marie Voir DDS, 130-137, tous les
analogismes du passage du 3 au 4 dimensionnel avec celui du 2 au 3 :
un rectangle tournant autour dun grand ct pris comme charnire
engendre un cylindre ; imaginer le plan-charnire dun volume (3 dim)
engendrant par rotation une figure 4 dim. Les deux transversales de verre
qui sparent rgion clibataire et rgion marie sont aussi des gnratrices
de cette sorte. Faire un tableau de charnire (DDS, 42).
5. Instruction : Ici il sagit dune mta- ou dune pata-charnire : entre au
moins les deux grandes uvres. Exemple et/ou hypothse : passage de la
Glissire de 1913-1915 au Chariot-glissire de La Marie, et de celui-ci au
bti dtant donns. Duchamp commente la Glissire : elle est aussi une
machine coulissant sur ses deux guides (DDS, 225). Ce quil ne dit pas :
le support de verre de la Glissire est encore un panneau mobile articul au
mur par deux charnires. Donc glissire reprsente et/ou machine et/ou
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examples given by Kant) is a plane: these two figures are not superimposable in 3-dim space (you cant put a right-hand glove into a left-hand
glove); they must be superimposable in a 4-dim region. Kant names this
property of symmetries incongruence: space is humoristic.
3. Examples: A hinge in logic would be a paradoxical operator, its minimum property would be to stand in the way of one of the great operators
of congruence, for example implication (if p, then q), which is the very
serious logical causality. Would it be the case for an inclusive disjunction:
and/or? Monsieur Marcel and/or Mademoiselle Rrose. Door (of the rue Larrey)
open and/or closed. If man, then non-woman; but: if man and/or woman,
what then? The and/or hinge appears to affirm the symmetry and the
incongruence of the two terms. An equivalent in the theory of modalities
might be: it is contingent that it be necessary that (the irony of having chosen
[contingency] the primitive body or object, which inevitably [necessity]
becomes according to this perspective [or other convention].) (DDS, 55).
A temporal equivalent: a current future taken as a current past; theme of
speed in Duchamp, and its solution sought on the side of a time of 2
dim, 3 dim, etc. (DDS, 130). A deontic equivalent: it is obligatory to permit
everything. Etc.
4. Pertinence of the hinge for Duchamp, it sustains the tale and above all
the spatial device of The Bride. See in DDS, 130-137, all the analogisms
of the passage from the 3- to the 4-dimensional with that from the 2- to
the 3-: a rectangle turning like a hinge engenders a cylinder; imagine the
hinge-plane of a volume (3-dim) engendering by rotation a 4-dim figure.
The two transversals of glass that separate the Bachelor region and the
Bride region are also generators of this sort. Make a hinge-picture
(DDS, 42).
5. Instruction: Here it is a question of a meta- or a patahinge: between at
least the two great works. Example and/or hypothesis: passage from the
Slide (Glider) of 1913-1915 to the Trolley-slide of The Bride, and from this
one to the fame of Given. Duchamps commentary on the Slide: it is also
a machine sliding on its two runners (DDS, 225). What he does not say
is: the glass support of the Slide is again a mobile panel articulated to the
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panneau articul. Le Chariot de La Marie est le mme objet, galement

sur verre ; mais le support nest pas mobile, cest le Grand Verre ; pourtant
si lon admet que la transversale infrieure est bien une ligne ou un plan
de charnire, le chariot (et toute la rgion infrieure) est par elle articule virtuellement avec la rgion suprieure du Verre. Alors linstruction :
le bti dtant donns (depuis le mur de briques jusqu la monture du
fond) tant suppos tre un chariot-glissire 3- dimensionnel, et aussi une
machine : trouver la charnire spcifique cette uvre, ou son absence.
6. Intuition : La charnire (ou le groupe de charnires) du Verre est asctique ; avec la transparence du matriau, elle contribue sa fonction
dapparition (DDS, 120-122). Loubli (?) dune charnire analogue dans
tant donns, joint sa profonde opacit plastique, en fait un lieu des
apparences (DDS, ibid.) et des sductions peut-tre. Quelle est la charnire entre les deux dispositifs ?

le verre
7. Titre du Verre, le narratif : Largument du Grand Verre est-il une narration, comme lindique le titre ? Ce que le titre (nonc 1) ne dit pas : les
Clibataires de la Marie mettant celle-ci nu, mme (2), qui est la transformation de (1) en actif. Beaucoup de diffrences entre les deux noncs ;
au moins celle-ci : mettant nu indique que cest en train de se passer
cette fois-ci o je parle (prsent dnonciation) ; mise nu, qui pourrait
tre le substantif (la Mise nu marie), laisse hsitant : la marie est-elle
en train dtre mise nu quand je parle ? la-t-elle t dj ? une fois ou
plusieurs ? reste-t-elle nue aprs quelle a t dvtue ? Questions style
confessionnal qui prennent revers la donne lexicale : en franais, la
marie nexiste quun jour et une nuit, la veille elle est la vierge et le lendemain lpouse. Au contraire le clibat est un tat. Autre diffrence : dans
(1), lnonc est focalis sur la marie ; linguistiquement elle pourrait se
passer de complment dagent, tandis que les clibataires de (2) ont bien
besoin dun objet pour complter leur action ; ils sont linguistiquement
plus maris que la marie (raison du possessif, ses clibataires ?). Et pour
(1) et (2) : la marie, est-ce celle-ci que je vous dsigne, ou celle, quelle
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wall by two hinges. Hence it is a represented Slide and/or machine and/

or articulated panel. The Trolley of The Bride is the same object, likewise
on glass. But the support is not movable; its the Large Glass. However, if
you admit that the lower transversal is indeed a hinge line or plane, the
Trolley (and the whole of the lower region) is virtually articulated by it to
the upper region of the Glass. Hence the instruction: the frame of Given
(from the brick wall to the background mounting) being supposed to be a
3-dimensional Slide-Trolley, and also a machine: find the hinge specific
to this work or its absence.
6. Intuition: the hinge (or the group of hinges) of the Glass is ascetic; with
the transparency of the material, it contributes to its function of apparition
(DDS, 120-122). The forgetting (?) of an analogous hinge in Given, joined to
its profound plastic opacity, makes of it a place of appearances (DDS, ibid.)
and of seductions perhaps. What is the hinge between the two devices?

the glass
7. Title of the Glass, the narrative: Is the argument of the Large Glass a narration, as its title indicates? What the title (statement 1) does not say is
this: the Brides Bachelors laying her bare, even (2), which is the transformation
of (1) into the active voice. There are many differences between the two
statements; at least this one: laying bare indicates that its in the course of
happening in this time when I am speaking (the present of enunciation);
laid bare, which might be the substantive (the Stripped-bare Bride), leaves
a hesitation: is the Bride in the process of being laid bare as I speak? Has
she already been laid bare? Once or several times? Does she remain naked
after having been undressed? Questions in a confessional style that take
the lexical given back-to-front: in French, the bride exists only for one day
and one night, on the day before, she is the virgin, on the day after, the
wife. By contrast, bachelorhood is a state. Another difference: in (1), the
statement is focused on the bride; linguistically she could do without an
adjunct of agency; whereas the bachelors of (2) have a definite need for an
object to complement their action; they are linguistically more married
than the bride (the reason for the possessive, her bachelors?). And for (1)
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quelle soit, laquelle vous pouvez penser ? La deuxime version, qui en

gnral simpose, classe le titre (1) du ct allgorique (type : la libert
conduisant le peuple). Y a-t-il donc rcit ? plutt lintitul dune scne
ou dun tableau vivant , au sens de Sade, avec les deux proprits du
genre : 1 cest un fragment ou un embryon de narration (comme les
images dun quelconque Thematic Aperception Test) ; 2 cest une illustration pour un discours pdagogique (lcole libertine chez Sade) men
paralllement. Fonction imaginative et fonction asctique.
8. Titre du Verre, le logique : Mme vient ici faire couler encore un peu
dencre. Ce serait un oprateur logique flottant. Duchamp affectionne
cette famille ; tant donn que ; si je suppose que je sois souffrant
beaucoup (DDS, 36 : Bote 1914) ; condition que (?) (DDS,
47) ; tant donns (dans lobscurit) 1 la chute deau ; 2 le gaz dclairage , repris ainsi : Soit, donns dans lobscurit (DDS, 43 :
Bote Verte) ; ou encore : Si un fil droit horizontal (DDS, 36 et 50 :
Bote 1914, repris dans la Bote Verte). Ce sont toujours les propositions
hypothtiques dune implication : si p (alors q). Mais ou bien la proposition implique manque, ou bien elle prend une forme programmatique :
tant donns x et y, on dterminera etc ; limplication reste donc
suspendue un futur problmatique, elle dpendra de ce que vous ferez
(on a donc non pas : Si p alors q, mais : Si p alors q ; et si p [= si a
marche] ; alors). Mme serait un oprateur galement incomplet, mais
indiquant la fois la concession ou renforcement de largument adverse
et sa rtorsion. Serait-elle mme mise nu (comme vous le supposez) ;
ou : quand bien mme ce seraient ses clibataires ; ou : supposer mme
quil y ait quelque marie ( = if any) : la concession accepte largument
de ladversaire, et mme son renforcement qui en aggrave la porte. Mais
les deux reculs sassocient pour le retourner (rtorsion) : eh bien, justement ; cest mme pour cela que La premire sophistique connaissait
bien ce procd de la technique ristique. La rtorsion de Duchamp anticipe lobjection : mais puisquils sont clibataires ? Eh bien justement,
ils le resteront, mme la baiseraient-ils ; tout cela plat (adj. even : uniforme, gal, plat, lisse, de mme niveau, etc.).

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and (2): the bride, does that mean this one here that I point out to you, or
the one, whoever she may be, of whom you can think? The second version,
which in general wins the day, classifies the title (1) on the side of the allegorical (of the type: Liberty leading the people). So is there a story? Rather
the heading of a scene or of a tableau vivant, in Sades sense, with the
two properties of this genre: 1) its a fragment or an embryo of narration
(like the images in some Thematic Aperception Test*); 2) its an illustration for a pedagogic discourse (the school of libertines in Sade) conducted
in parallel with it. Imaginative function and ascetic function.
8. Title of the Glass, the logical: The word even will make a bit more ink flow
here. It would appear to be a floating logical operator. Duchamp has
affection for this family; given that; if I assume that I be suffering
much (DDS, 36: Box 1914); on condition that (?) (DDS, 47); Given (in
darkness) 1st the waterfall; 2nd the illuminating gas, taken up again as:
Let there be, given in the darkness (DDS, 43: Green Box); or again: If a
horizontal straight thread (DDS, 36, 50: Box 1914, taken up again in the
Green Box). These are always the hypothetical propositions of an implication: if p (then q). But either the implied proposition is missing or else it
takes a programmatic form: given x and y, it will be determined etc.
The implication thus remains suspended from a future problematic; it
will depend on what you will do (and so we have, not: If p then q, but: If p
then q; and if p [= if it works]; then). Even would appear to be an operator
that is likewise incomplete, but indicating both the concession or reinforcement of the adverse argument and its retortion. Would she be even
laid bare (as you assume); or: even if they were her bachelors; or: assuming
even that there be any bride (= if any*): the concession accepts the adversarys argument and even its reinforcement, which aggravates its content.
But the two retreats band together to turn it back (retortion): well, now,
thats just it; its even/just for that reason that. The first sophists knew
well this procedure of the eristic technique. Duchamps retortion anticipates the objection: but because they are bachelors? Well, exactly, they
will remain so, even if they were to screw her; all this being flat (adj. even*:
uniform, equal, flat, smooth, at the same level, etc.).

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9. Titre du Verre, le paradoxal : Faire attention ceci : Dornavant

partir du Buisson [1910-1911], jallais toujours accorder un rle important
au titre que jajoutais et traitais comme une couleur invisible (DDS,
220). Les titres des uvres ne dsignent pas leur contenu ou signification, ou pas seulement. Ils leur sont ajouts, ils ne sont pas engendrs
partir de lhistoire quelles reprsentent. Ils nont pas non plus une fonction dindexation par rapport un systme des genres, ici picturaux. Ils
sont censs oprer sur le regardeur au mme titre quune couleur. Mais
celle-ci est invisible. On peut bien pratiquer llevage des couleurs
comme de fruits, seulement le fruit a encore viter dtre mang
(DDS, 100). Duchamp veut des couleurs inconsommables aux yeux,
une certaine inopticit, une certaine considration froide . Les couleurs du Verre seront seulement les couleurs dont on parle (DDS, 118),
des participes passs et non des participes prsents (ibid.). Si le titre
peut agir comme une couleur, cest que la couleur agit comme un nom
(de couleur). Pour autant quil est color, le tableau est un nonc, du
moins une combinaison de noms dnus de significations, bref un titre.
Le titre du Verre est une couleur, il est luvre, ou une partie de luvre.
Et les couleurs de luvre agissent comme son titre. Le titre est ainsi
paradoxal deux fois : il na pas plus daffinit avec le contenu de luvre
que les couleurs nen ont avec les parties duvre quelles teintent : arbitraire des signes, pourtant censs ralistes, surtout quand ils sont visuels ;
dautre part, les mots qui le forment font partie de lensemble constitu
par les couleurs, mais celles-ci font partie de lensemble form par les
mots : tautologie, ou paradoxe de la classe de toutes les classes.
10. Titre du Verre, charnire articulant donc trois volets : une fonction
narrative dcomposable en fonction pdagogique (allgorique) et fonction imaginative (rotique) ; la fonction logique doprateur flottant ;
une fonction paradoxale de tautologie ou de sui-rfrence.
11. Notes des Botes, descriptions : Suivre ce que le rcit devient dans les
Notes des Botes. (II doit y avoir une chronologie des notes, tablir :
quelques-unes dans la Bote Verte sont dates : 1913, 1914, mai ou septembre 1915, et dans la Bote Blanche : 1913, 1914, dcembre 1915. Dautres
peuvent ltre par critique externe ; le reste par critique interne, analyse
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9. Title of the Glass, the paradoxical: Pay attention to this: Henceforth starting from Le Buisson [1910-1911], I was always going to give an important
role to the title which I added and which I treated as an invisible color
(DDS, 220). The titles of works do not indicate their content or meaning,
or not only. They are added to them; they are not engendered from the
story that they represent. Nor have they an indexing function in relation
to a system of genres, in this case pictural ones. They are supposed to
operate on the spectator in the same way as a color. But this color is invisible. One can certainly practice the raising of colors like the raising of
fruit, only the fruit still has to avoid being eaten (DDS, 100). Duchamp
wants colors that are unconsumable by the eyes, a certain inopticity, a
certain cold consideration. The colors of the Glass will be only the colors
of which we are speaking (DDS, 118), past participles and not present
participles (ibid.). If the title can act as a color, its because the color acts
as a name (of a color). Inasmuch as it is colored, the picture is a statement,
at least a combination of names denuded of meanings, in a word: a title.
The title of the Glass is a color, it is the work, or a part of the work. And
the colors of the work act as its title. Thus the title is doubly paradoxical: it has no more affinity with the content of the work than the colors
have with the parts of the work that they color: the arbitrariness of signs,
though they are supposed to be realist ones, especially when they are
visual; besides, the words that form them form a part of the ensemble
constituted by the colors, but the colors form part of the ensemble formed
by the words: tautology, or paradox of the class of all classes.
10. Title of the Glass, hinge: articulating, then, three panels: a narrative
function that can be broken down into a pedagogic (allegorical) function
and an imaginative (erotic) function; the logical function of a floating
operator; a paradoxical function of tautology or self-reference.
11. Notes of the Boxes, descriptions: Follow what the story becomes in the
Notes of the Boxes. (There must be a chronology of the notes, to be
established: some of them in the Green Box are dated 1913, 1914, May or
September 1915, and in the White Box: 1913, 1914, December 1915. Others
can be dated by external criticism, the rest by internal criticism, graphological analysis, perhaps. One could examine whether the importance
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graphologique peut-tre. On pourrait examiner si limportance accorde la fonction narrative change, par exemple dcrot mesure que
le travail avance.) Les Notes sont des rflexions ou des indications de
fabrication, les unes et les autres visent produire des figures plastiques
visibles ; et sont induites par le scne de lintitul, Mais linduction passe
par un mdiateur potique qui est presque un genre, la description analytique. Entre le rcit et les figures inscrites sur le Verre, des hros sont
dcomposs en viscres, puis en pices de machines (en bas mcaniques
et chimiques, en haut lectriques) ; la Note fait la description dune pice
et de son fonctionnement. Donc deux tats narratifs : un embryon de
rcit gnral, la Marie, etc. ; des descriptions locales (du type : le chariot serait form de tiges de mtal mancip , DDS, 81), qui conduiront aux projections proprement dites sur le Verre. Entre les deux, des
dcisions arbitraires et ncessitantes ; la marie sera un unique moteur
explosion, les clibataires des rservoirs multiples gaz assortis de tout un
atelier de transformation. Ces dcisions inclinent les descriptions depuis
lanatomie-physiologie vers la gomtrie descriptive, la dynamique des
forces et la mta-gomtrie. Par les dcisions, les implications descriptives reoivent la marque des influences (gomtrisme, anticubisme,
etc.) et des obsessions et ingniosits. Donc deux battants extrmes : le
rcit, les figures du Verre, et entre eux, double charnire : les dcisions de
champ avec leur amont (les influences ), et les descriptions de pices.
12. Dernires Notes, Spculations : Finalement, dans les Notes publies en
dernier (Bote Blanche), les charnires dvorent leurs volets. Et mme,
les rflexions sur les dcisions (celles touchant la gomtrie n-dimensionnelle) dvorent les descriptions de pices et dagencements. La scne se
vide. Il y a peu voir, il y a une certaine inopticit (DDS, 118). Vers
labstraction ? Mais la chronologie des Botes nest pas ncessairement
celle de la rdaction des Notes
13. Le Verre et son rcit : Pourtant les Notes et le Verre resteront accrochs
la Scne, ne serait-ce que par le titre. Pourquoi celui-ci ? est-ce une
couleur invisible ajoute, celle du sexe ? est-ce un gard rendu la
fonction du rcit, mme le plus lmentaire, par rapport au temps,
savoir dindiquer quil sest pass quelque chose, ou va se passer quelque
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attached to the narrative function changes; for example, whether it

decreases as the work progresses.) The Notes are reflections or indications of manufacture. Both aim to produce visible plastic figures; they are
induced by the scene of the heading. But the induction passes via a poetic
mediator that is almost a genre, that of analytic description. Between
the story and the figures inscribed on the Glass, heroes are broken down
into viscera, then into parts of machines (down below, mechanical and
chemical ones; up above, electrical ones); the Note gives the description
of a part and its functioning. Thus, two narrative states: an embryo of a
general story, the Bride, etc.; local descriptions (of the type: the trolley
would be made out of rods of emancipated metal, DDS, 81), which will
lead to the projections in the proper sense onto the Glass. Between the
two, arbitrary and necessitating decisions; the Bride will be one single
internal combustion engine; the Bachelors will be multiple reservoirs for
assorted gases from a whole transformation workshop. These decisions
move the descriptions away from anatomy-physiology toward descriptive
geometry, dynamics of forces, and meta-geometry. By these decisions, the
descriptive implications receive the mark of influences (geometrism,
anticubism, etc.) and of obsessions and ingenious strokes. Thus, two
extreme flaps: the story, the figures of the Glass, and between them, a double hinge: the decisions made in the field [les dcisions de champ] with the
area prior to them (the influences), and the descriptions of the parts.
12. Final Notes, speculations: Finally, in the Notes published in the last phase
(White Box), the hinges devour their panels. And even the reflections
on the decisions (those involving n-dimensional geometry) devour the
descriptions of parts and arrangements. The stage empties. There is little
to be seen; there is a certain inopticity (DDS, 118). Toward abstraction?
But the chronology of the Boxes is not necessarily that of the writing of
the Notes.
13. The Glass and its story: And yet the Notes and the Glass will remain
hooked onto the Scene, even if only by the title. Why the title? Is it an
added invisible color, that of sex? Is it a consideration given to the
function of the story, even the most elementary one, in relation to time,
namely to indicate that something is happening, or is going to happen
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chose (vnement) ? est-ce pour inciter le regardeur chercher du ct

du sexe et pour ly piger ? Oui, oui et/ou oui. Le rcit est indicateur de
mouvement, ce mouvement nest pas reprable immdiatement. Et cest
le cas de tout vnement (quand il se passe quelque chose, le quelque
chose ne se livre pas dabord pour ce quil est, sans quoi il ne se passe rien),
lrotisme est l(in)exprience commune du passage dvnement, indiqu
dans maint titre : Entours de nus vites, Passage de la vierge la marie.
La narration fournit un horizon dhistoire paradoxale lachronie du
Verre. Excitant pornographique des rcits vis--vis des figures (comme les
Historiennes des Cent vingt journes le sont leurs auditeurs praticiens).
14. Complexit du rcit clibataire : Latelier clibataire sorganise selon
une chronologie de production. Comme toute usine, il ordonne les
transformations que subit une donne ou matire premire, ici le gaz,
dorigine inconnue, jusqu son expdition, sous forme de produit fini,
vers les organes de la marie dans la rgion suprieure. ct de cette
squence narrative, suffisamment explicite par Duchamp, un autre
complexe mcanique, quasi indpendant du premier, correspond au rcit
de la fabrication dun second produit, le chocolat au lait, partir dun
chocolat venant on ne sait do (DDS, 96). Ce produit nest expdi
nulle part. Enfin dans le projet final du Verre, on trouve associ la
broyeuse un troisime complexe ; il devait tre anim par une chute deau
tombant sur les palettes dun moulin dont la rotation entranait laxe de
la broyeuse et commandait indirectement le mouvement dun chariot sur
glissire vers la broyeuse : un poids (Bouteille ou Agrafe) sabattant sur
des cordes attaches au chariot devait lattirer vers la droite du tableau,
et cest une poulie connecte laxe du moulin qui devait remonter ce
poids, cependant que le chariot tait ramen sa position initiale par des
lastiques, situs donc gauche du tableau (DDS, 83), ou peut-tre
par un principe dinversion de frottements (DDS, 82). La chute deau,
le poids sur crmaillre, les cordes et les lastiques sont rests inexcuts.
Les allers du chariot sont des mouvements alatoires (le poids qui les
commande tant densit oscillante , DDS, 86-89), les retours se font
sans entropie (DDS, 81, 83), le tout ne produit rien que des litanies
(DDS, 81, 82).

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(event)? Is it to incite the looker to look on the side of sex, and is it in order
to trap him at it? Yes, yes and/or yes. The story is indicative of movement;
this movement is not noticeable immediately. And its the case for any
event (when something happens, the something does not give itself up at
once for what it is, or else nothing happens). Eroticism is the common (in)
experience of the passing of an event, indicated in many titles: Surrounded
by Swift Nudes, The Passage from Virgin to Bride. Narration furnishes the
a-chrony of the Glass with a horizon of paradoxical story, the pornographic excitant of the stories vis--vis the figures (like the Historiennes of
the Hundred and Twenty Days are for their listeners, the practitioners).
14. Complexity of the Bachelor story: the Bachelor workshop is organized
according to a chronology of production. Like any factory, it orders the
transformations to which a given or a raw material is subjected in this
case the gas, of unknown origin until it is sent out, in the form of a
finished product, toward the organs of the Bride in the upper region.
Beside this narrative sequence, made sufficiently explicit by Duchamp,
there is another mechanical complex, quasi-independent of the first
one, corresponding to the story of the making of a second product, milk
chocolate, starting from a chocolate coming from who knows where
(DDS, 96). This product is not sent to anywhere. Finally, in the last plan
of the Glass, we find associated with the chocolate-grinder a third complex. It was supposed to be set in motion by a waterfall falling onto the
blades of a mill whose rotation drove the shaft of the chocolate-grinder
and indirectly governed the movement of a Trolley on a slide toward the
chocolate grinder. A weight (Bottle or Hook) falling on strings attached
to the Trolley had to draw it toward the right of the picture, and a pulley
connected to the shaft of the mill had to raise this weight again while the
Trolley was brought back to its initial position by rubber bands, situated,
therefore, at the left of the picture (DDS, 83) or, perhaps, by a principle
of inversion of frictions (DDS, 82). The waterfall, the weight on a rackand-pinion system, the ropes, and the rubber bands were never executed.
The outward trips of the Trolley are aleatory movements (the weight that
governs them being of oscillating density [DDS, 86-89]); the return trips
are made without entropy (DDS, 81, 83); the whole thing produces nothing but litanies (DDS, 81, 82).
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15. Simplicit de lespace clibataire : Donc dans le mme atelier du bas,

trois processus productifs, sous-rcits mcaniques, lun utile ayant son
dbouch sur la cliente den haut, et indpendant des deux autres (si lon
nglige le rle des ciseaux) ; les deux derniers rcits au contraire asservis
lun lautre par laxe du moulin, mais indpendants de la rgion marie
et de la production du gaz. Soit un volet narratif assez riche, avec deux
et/ou trois charnires internes (si lindpendance est une charnire). Or
la figuration spatiale de ce mme atelier est au contraire profondment
homogne, entirement rgie par la perspective classique. Duchamp a
tabli le plan et llvation des figures de latelier (DDS, 60 et 61) ; il a
peut-tre, comme Piero, construit une maquette de latelier. La rgion
du bas est dans toutes ses parties la projection perspective sur le plan du
verre dun cube profond ordonn un unique point de fuite ; celui-ci est
plac sur la ligne dhorizon forme par le bord infriur de lune des deux
rgles, linfrieure, qui sparent les deux rgions. ( noter que quatre
des moules mlies sont placs au-dehors du cube virtuel, gauche, et
ramens dans le cadre du verre par la seule perspective : question suivre
sur tant donns) Ce classicisme se confirme dans la composition des
figures : Rectangle, cercle, carr, paralllipipde, anse symtrique, demisphre (DDS, 66). Mais voici la valeur que Duchamp lui accorde :
les formes principales de la machine-clibataire sont imparfaites []
= cest--dire elles sont mensures (ibid.). Tous leurs rapports ont t
calculs en vue dune unit optique : telle est leur imperfection. La projection unifiante pour, lil du 3 dim en 2 dim est donc une carence.
Pourquoi ? parce que la charnire du 3 dim avec le 2 dim est alors sans
secret, visible, congruente. Lil reste matre de ses objets. Les dformations auxquelles ces figures sont forces sont corriges aisment, ce ne
sont pas des dissimilations puissantes. Le volet plastique du clibat est
pauvre, spatialement, sans charnire paradoxale interne (si lon nglige le
matriau transparent).
16. Unit du rcit-marie : Lappareil-marie prsente un dsquilibre diffrent : rcit productif unifi, espaces multiples. La machinerie femelle
a pour modle le moteur explosions ; entre autres, la mise nu est
celle des ples plus et moins dun circuit lectrique, elle suscite ltincelle qui fait exploser le gaz (DDS, 62-66). Le haut et le bas sopposent
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15. Simplicity of the Bachelor space: Thus, in the same lower workshop, three
productive processes, mechanical subtales, the one useful having its
outlet onto the client above and independent of the two others (if one
ignores the role of the scissors); the last two stories by contrast subjected
one to the other by the shaft of the mill, but independent of the Bride
region and of the production of the gas. In other words, a richly narrative
panel with two and/or three internal hinges (if independence is a hinge).
But the spatial figuration of this same workshop is, on the contrary,
profoundly homogeneous, entirely governed by classical perspective.
Duchamp established the plan and elevation of the figures in the workshop (DDS, 60, 61); perhaps like Piero he constructed a mock-up of the
workshop. The lower region is, in all its parts, the perspective projection
onto the plane of the glass a deep cube arranged around one single vanishing point; the latter is placed on the horizon line formed by the lower
edge of one of the two rulers, the lower one, which separates the two
regions. (Note that four of the Malic Molds are placed outside the virtual
cube, at the left, and brought back into the frame of the glass by perspective alone: a question to follow up with regard to Given.) The classicism
is confirmed in the composition of the figures: Rectangle, circle, square,
symmetrical loop, demisphere (DDS, 66). But here is the value that
Duchamp gives it: The principal forms of the bachelor-machine are imperfect [] = that is, they are measured (ibid.). All their relations have been
calculated with a view to an optical unity: such is their imperfection. The
unifying projection for the eye of the 3-dim into the 2-dim is thus a deficiency. Why? Because the hinge of the 3-dim with the 2-dim is then without secret: it is visible, congruent. The eye remains master of its objects.
The deformations to which these figures are forced are easily corrected;
they are not powerful dissimilations. The plastic panel of bachelorhood
is spatially poor, lacking a paradoxical internal hinge (if one ignores the
transparent material).
16. Unity of the Bride-tale: The Bride-apparatus presents a different disequilibrium: a unified productive story, multiple spaces. The female machinery
has as its model the internal combustion engine; among others, the stripping bare is that of the poles, more or less, of an electric circuit, it generates the spark that makes the gas explode (DDS, 62-66). The top and the
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comme deux technologies, la seconde traditionnellement mcanique, la

premire moderne transmission lectrique, opposition qui se transcrit
plastiquement : la machine marie nest pas place dans le mme espace
que latelier clibataire.
17. Htrognit de lespace-marie : Mais dabord cet espace nest pas
homogne en lui-mme. Ici il faut repasser par le rcit de production.
Lexplosion nest autre que l panouissement de la femme (DDS,
62-65) ; toute limportance graphique est pour cet panouissement
cinmatique , il est la partie la plus importante du tableau , laurole
de la marie (DDS, 62-63). Seulement les combustibles sont de deux
sortes : dsir des clibataires (gaz mis dans les cylindres), imagination
volontaire de la marie dsirante. Ce second principe dpanouissement
est le fait dune magnto-dsir ou dun dsir-rouage (DDS, 63-65),
dont la pice matresse est loge gauche de la partie suprieure lintrieur du Pendu femelle, et se nomme larbre-type ; au contraire les
cylindres pris dans la chair de la Voie lacte, organe superficiel (nomms dans les premires Notes cylindres seins ), spanouissent plutt
(DDS, 64), en tout cas : aussi (DDS, 65), la faveur des explosions du
gaz tir depuis latelier clibataire. ces deux principes de fonctionnement correspondent deux graphismes plastiques diffrents, compltement diffrents, dont la mixture , le compos physique est
inanalysable par la logique (DDS, 64). Duchamp dit des Concrtions
dArp quelles sont souvent comme des calembours trois dimensions,
[] ce que, ajoute-t-il, le corps fminin et pu tre (DDS, 195) : tel
serait le compos physique virtuel de la rgion du haut. Lespace du haut
nest donc pas isomorphe en tous ses points, et les deux complexes de
lunique machine sont reprsents selon des modalits plastiques diffrentes : les formes de gauche (Pendu) relvent dune organisation de style
cubiste, tridimensionnelle mais point de vue clat ; droite on a
affaire une modulation abstraite de la profondeur, obtenue par flottement (la silhouette des Pistons a t donne par des carrs de gaze flottant
au vent) ou par jeu dadresse (les tirs sont les traces de neuf tirs visant un
unique but et arrts par un mme cran). Le hasard joue un rle dans la
fabrication de ces formes principales libres (DDS, 66-67) qui ne sont
pas mensures par rapport leur destination. Si projection il y a, et
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bottom are opposed to each other like two technologies, the second being
traditionally mechanical, the first being modern and working by electrical
transmission, an opposition that is transcribed in a plastic way: the Bridemachine is not placed in the same space as the Bachelor workshop.
17. Heterogeneity of the Bride-space: But first this space is not homogeneous in itself. Here you must pass again through the story of production.
The explosion is none other than the blossoming of the woman (DDS,
62-65); all the graphic importance is for this cinematic blossoming; it
is the most important part of the picture the halo of the Bride (DDS,
62-63). But the combustibles are of two sorts: the desire of the Bachelors
(gas given off in the cylinders) and the wilful imagination of the desiring Bride. This second principle of blossoming is something done by a
magneto-desire or a gear-train desire (DDS, 63-65), whose mistresscog is housed on the left of the upper part inside the Pendu femelle and is
called the standard driveshaft; by contrast the cylinders stuck in the
flesh of the Milky Way, a superficial organ (named in the first Notes as
breast cylinders), open out (DDS, 64), in any case: also (DDS, 65) owing
to the explosions of the gas fired from the Bachelor workshop. To these
two principles of functioning correspond two different plastic graphisms,
completely different, whose mixture, whose physical compound
is unanalysable by logic (DDS, 64). Duchamp says of Arps Concretions
that they are often like puns in three dimensions [] which, he adds,
is what the female body could have been (DDS, 195): such would be
the virtual physical compound of the upper region. The upper space is
thus not isomorphic in all its points, and the two complexes of the one
machine are represented according to different plastic modalities: the
forms on the left (Pendu femelle) derive from an organization that is cubist
in style, tridimensional but seen from an exploded point of view; on
the right we are dealing with an abstract modulation of depth, obtained
by a wavering (the silhouette of the Pistons was given by squares of gauze
fluttering in the wind) or by a game of skill (the fired shots are the traces
of nine shots aimed at one single target and stopped by one single screen).
Chance plays a role in the making of these principal free forms (DDS,
66-67), which are not measured in relation to their destination. If there
is projection and there is projection it is not thinkable according to
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il y a projection, elle nest pas pensable selon les canons de la costruzione

legittima. Son principe comporte le jeu dune variable non contrle au
sein dun groupe de contraintes dfinies : hasard et prcision.
18. Homognit de lespace-marie : Pourtant les formes du haut obissent ensemble un principe gnral de projection, nullement incompatible avec leur htrognit : pour associer celle-ci avec celui-l, il suffit
dadmettre que nous ne pouvons pas nous reprsenter les lois de cette
projection. Si la machine-femme est un objet 4 dim, et si nous ignorons
comment un tel objet inscrit sa forme dans un espace 3 dim, alors on
peut supposer que les proprits plastiques pourtant incongruentes du
Pendu et de la Voie lacte sont autant d exemples (DDS, 66-67),
deffets possibles dune telle projection, nanmoins unique en son principe. Lorganisation plastique de latelier du bas exclut toute allusion
une tendue 4 dim : le clibataire est 3 dim et il le reste, mme quand
il est projet sur une surface (3 dim virtuel). Mais quand on remonte
de la projection 2 dim des organes de la marie son suppos corps 3
dim, on ne rencontre pas celui-ci, mais seulement les organes disperss
et incongruents que le Verre nous offre ; il faudrait lui ajouter encore une
dimension pour atteindre le vrai corps ; mais on ne peut imaginer celui-ci
visuellement. Double charnire spatiale qui dissimule compltement lun
de ses battants.
19. La grande charnire, la transversale infrieure : Mais la grande charnire
plastique du Verre, cest le groupe des transversales. Les rcits en font un
Refroidisseur pour les lans de la marie et des clibataires, et ils fixent
sur sa ligne des appareils dont nous connaissons lun, le Combat de boxe,
par les Notes (DDS, 94-96) et lautre, le Soigneur de gravit, par une
reconstitution (due Jean Suquet).1
Ces appareils inexcuts sur le Verre ouvrent des passages entre des
espaces htromorphes : du point de vue du Rcit, ils suffisent interdire
quon lise le Verre comme une tragdie de la mprise ou de la sparation
entre hommes et femmes. Si lon sen tient au point de vue plastique, ils
soulignent la remarquable polyvalence de la transversale. Celle-ci est faite
1

Le Guridon et la virgule, Paris, Bourgois, 1976.

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the canons of the costruzione legittima. Its principle comprises the play of
an uncontrolled variable in the heart of a group of defined constraints:
chance and precision.
18. Homogeneity of the Bride-space: And yet the forms of the top together
obey a general principle of projection, in no way incompatible with their
heterogeneity: To put this heterogeneity together with that principle,
it is enough to admit that we cannot represent to ourselves the laws of
this projection. If the woman-machine is a 4-dim object, and if we do not
know how such an object inscribes its form in a 3-dim space, well, then,
you can assume that the (nonetheless incongruent) plastic properties of
the Pendu femelle and the Milky Way are so many examples (DDS, 66-67)
of possible effects of such a projection, which is nevertheless unique in its
principle. The plastic organization of the workshop down below excludes
all allusion to a 4-dim area: the Bachelor is 3-dim and he remains so, even
when he is projected onto a surface (3-dim virtual). But when you come
back up again from the 2-dim projection of the organs of the Bride to her
supposed 3-dim body, you do not meet this body, but only the dispersed
and incongruent organs the Glass offers us; you would have to add to it
another dimension in order to attain the true body; but you cannot imagine this body visually. A double spatial hinge that completely conceals one
of its flaps.
19. The large hinge, the lower transversal: But the large plastic hinge of the
Glass is the group of transversals. The stories make of them a Cooler for
the surges of the Bride and the Bachelors, and they fix on its line some
apparatuses of which we know one, the Boxing Match, from the Notes
(DDS, 94-96) and the other, the Gravity Handler, from a reconstitution
(which we owe to Jean Suquet).1
These apparatuses, not executed on the Glass, open passages between
heteromorphous spaces: from the point of view of the tale, they are
sufficient to forbid us to read the Glass as a tragedy of errors or of the
separation between men and women. If you stick to the plastic point of
view, they emphasize the remarkable polyvalence of the transversal. It is

Le Guridon et la virgule, Paris, Bourgois, 1976.

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de deux rgles de verre accoles, dterminant trois lignes parallles horizontales. La ligne du dessous est la ligne dhorizon de latelier clibataire,
elle porte le point de fuite qui en organise la perspective. Cest donc une
ligne dans le plan (2 dim) du verre, en mme temps que la charnire de
deux plans (sol et ciel) dans lespace virtuel (3 dim). Quant au point, il
marque 1 lintersection de toutes les lignes de fuite, traces puis effaces,
sur la surface 2 dim du verre, 2 lintersection de lorthogonale issue de
lil du regardeur avec le mme plan rel, 3 lintersection de cette mme
orthogonale avec la ligne dhorizon faisant charnire entre ciel et terre
dans lespace 3 dim virtuel.
20. La transversale suprieure : Duchamp la nomme Habits de la marie
dans un schma des Notes (DDS, 95), cela pour le rcit. Mais plastiquement ? Elle est videmment le ct infrieur du cadre de lespace-marie
vu par lil 3 dim rel du regardeur. Mais elle doit tre encore tout autre
chose, sil est vrai que sur la surface du haut est inscrite une projection 3
dim (virtuelle) de la figure 4 dim inconnue, celle de la femme.
Ici se laisser influencer et obsder par les mmes sources que
Duchamp quand il prend ses dcisions narratives et plastiques. Jean
Clair2 a tabli celle du livre de science-fiction de Pawlowski, Voyage au
pays de la quatrime dimension. Et il montre3 ailleurs celle des lectures
de gomtrie n-dimensionnelle, en particulier de Jouffret (DDS, 127),
qui lui apporte la thorie des coupures venue de Dedekind par Poincar.
Celui-ci crit : Pour diviser lespace, il faut des coupures que lon appelle
surfaces ; pour diviser les surfaces, il faut des coupures que lon appelle
des lignes ; pour diviser les lignes, il faut des coupures que lon appelle
points ; on ne peut aller plus loin et le point ne peut tre divis, le point
nest pas un continu ; alors les lignes, quon peut diviser par des coupures
qui ne sont pas des continus, seront des continus une dimension ; les
surfaces que lon peut diviser par des coupures continues une dimension, seront des continus deux dimensions, enfin lespace que lon peut
diviser par des coupures continues deux dimensions sera un continu
trois dimensions (La Valeur de la science, 1re d., 74). De quoi il suit :
2
3

Marcel Duchamp ou le grand fictif, Paris, Galile, 1975.

Marcel Duchamp et la tradition des perspecteurs , in Marcel Duchamp, abcdaire, Paris, Muse National
dArt Moderne et Centre National dArt et de Culture, 1977.

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made from two glass rulers placed side by side, determining three horizontal parallel lines. The line below is the horizon line of the Bachelor
workshop. It bears the vanishing-point that organizes its perspective.
It is therefore a line in the (2-dim) plane of the glass, at the same time
as the hinge of two planes (earth and sky) in virtual space (3-dim). As
for the point, it marks 1) the intersection of all the lines of flight, traced
but effaced, on the 2-dim surface of the glass; 2) the intersection of the
orthogonal issuing from the viewers eye with the same real plane; and 3)
the intersection of this same orthogonal with the horizon line making a
hinge between sky and earth in virtual 3-dim space.
20. The upper transversal: Duchamp names it Clothes of the Bride in a
sketch in the Notes (DDS, 95). Thats for the tale. But plastically? It is
obviously the lower edge of the frame of the Bride-space seen by the real
3-dim eye of the viewer. But it must still be something quite different, if
it is true that on the top surface is inscribed a 3-dim (virtual) projection of
the unknown 4-dim figure, that of the woman.
Here let yourself be influenced and obsessed by the same sources
as Duchamp when he takes his narrative and plastic decisions. Jean
Clair has established that Pawlowskis book of science fiction, Journey to
the Land of the Fourth Dimension, was such a source.2 And he shows elsewhere the influence of Duchamps readings of n-dimensional geometry,
in particular of Jouffret (DDS, 127), who brings him the theory of cuts
that came from Dedekind via Poincar.3 The latter writes: In order to
divide space, you need cuts which are called surfaces; in order to divide
surfaces, you need cuts which are called lines; in order to divide lines,
you need cuts called points; you cannot go further and the point cannot
be further divided, the point is not a continuum; so lines, which can be
divided by cuts which are not continua, will be continua with one dimension; surfaces, which you can divide by cuts which are continuous in one
dimension, will be continua with 2 dimensions; finally, space, which can
be divided by cuts which are continuous in two dimensions, will be a
continuum of 3 dimensions.4 From which it follows: An area that can be
2
3
4

Marcel Duchamp ou le grand fictif, Paris, Galile, 1975.

Marcel Duchamp et la tradition des perspecteurs, in Marcel Duchamp, abcdaire, Paris,
National Museum of Modern Art and National Centre of Art and Culture, 1977.
La Valeur de la science, op. cit., 74.

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une tendue que lon peut diviser par des coupures continues trois
dimensions sera une tendue 4 dim. rapprocher de cette spculation :
Les lames de rasoir qui coupent bien et les lames de rasoir qui ne coupent plus. Les premires ont du coupage en rserve. Se servir de ce
coupage ou coupaison (DDS, 47). Un plan (2 dim) est coupant
dans lespace 3 dim, il ne coupe plus dans une tendue 4 dim, exactement comme un point coupant pour la ligne ne lest pas pour le plan, ou
comme une ligne, coupante pour le plan, ne lest pas pour lespace 3 dim.
La mme figure gomtrique voit ainsi sa puissance opratoire diminue quand elle est place dans un continu possdant une dimension de
plus que celle o cette puissance tait entire. Mais si lon ne sintresse
quaux puissances, comme Duchamp, on dira plutt : le point est la
ligne comme la ligne au plan, etc., et comme le volume au 4 dim. On a
ici une loi gnrale de projection, do se dduit (trs srieusement) que
ce qui est une ligne dans un plan est la trace dun plan ( vu de profil )
situ dans un espace 3 dim, de mme quun plan dans un espace 3 dim
peut tre la projection dun volume 3 dim situe dans un espace 4 dim.
On peut alors revenir la transversale suprieure du Verre et dire : elle
est une ligne dans le plan du verre, elle est aussi le profil dun plan dans
lespace 3 dim virtuel de la rgion suprieure, mais comme ce plan est
lui-mme la projection dun volume 3 dim situ dans lespace 4 dim o
se tient le vrai corps de la femme, cette ligne est donc aussi la trace (plan
2 dim) de la trace (volume 3 dim) dune puissance qui nest coupante que
dans ltendue 4 dim. Si nous appelons cette figure coupante angle 4 dim,
nous pourrons dire aprs Duchamp : Pour la reprsentation de langle4,
2 glaces se coupant ( angle obtus) reprsentent 2 espaces se coupant sur
[?] une charnire-plan. Pour lil3, dans lespace3, ce plan-charnire nest
visible qu la coupure avec lespace3, cest--dire lintersection ligne des
deux glaces. Le plan-charnire des 2 espaces3 se cache derrire cette ligne et
limpression est nette pour lil3 qui se dplace de droite gauche sans
pouvoir jamais saisir un peu [?] de ce plan (DDS, 131). Comprendre :
cette ligne qui cache le plan-charnire cache aussi (encore plus ?) le
volume-charnire quest ncessairement un angle dans une tendue 4 dim.
21. La transversale mdiane. Maintenant : pourquoi nattribuer cette proprit qu la ligne suprieure des transversales ? Pour linfrieure, aucune
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divided by cuts that are continuous in three dimensions will be an area

having 4 dimensions. Compare that with this speculation: Razorblades
which cut well and razorblades which no longer cut. The former have
cuttage [du coupage] in reserve. Make use of this cuttage or cuttingness
[coupaison] (DDS, 47). A plane is usable for cutting in 3-dim space, but it
no longer cuts in a 4-dim area, exactly as a point, usable for cutting a line;
it is no longer so usable for a plane, and just as a line, usable for cutting a
plane, is no longer so usable for a 3-dim space.
The same geometric figure thus sees its operative power diminished
when it is placed in a continuum possessing one dimension more than the
one in which this power was intact. But if one is interested only in powers, like Duchamp, one will say rather: the point is to the line as the line to
the plane, etc., and as the volume is to the 4-dim. Here we have a general
law of projection, from which can be deduced (very seriously) that what is
a line in a plane is the trace of a plane (seen from the side) situated in a
3-dim space, the same as a plane in a 3-dim space can be the projection of a
3-dim volume situated in a 4-dim space.
You can thus go back to the upper transversal of the Glass and say: It
is a line in the plane of the glass, but it is also the profile of a plane in the
virtual 3-dim space of the upper region, but because this plane is itself
the projection of a 3-dim volume situated in the 4-dim space where the
true body of the woman is, this line is thus also the trace (2-dim plane)
of the trace (3-dim volume) of a power that is usable for cutting only in
a 4-dim area. If we call this cutting figure 4-dim angle we can say after
Duchamp: For the representation of the angle 4, two mirrors intersecting each other (at an obtuse angle) represent 2 spaces intersecting each
other on [?] a hinge-plane. For the eye3, in space3, this hinge-plane is visible only at its cut with space3, i.e., the intersection line of the two mirrors.
The hinge-plane of the two spaces3 is hidden behind this line and the impression
is clear for the eye3 which is moving from right to left without ever being
able to grasp a little [?] of this plane (DDS, 131). Understand: this line that
hides the hinge plane also hides (even more?) the hinge volume, which is
necessarily an angle in a 4-dim area.
21. The median transversal: Now: why attribute this property only to the
upper line of the transversals? For the lower line, no Note or declaration
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Note ni dclaration ne permet de supposer que lespace clibataire ait t

conu comme une trace (au 2 degr infrieur de puissance) dune figure 4
dim, et il est par consquent certain que sa ligne dhorizon, la transversale
infrieure, ne reprsente lil 3 dim rel du regardeur rien dautre quune
ligne ou quun profil de plan. Ce qui reste nigmatique est alors la transversale intermdiaire, forme par la ligne de contact des deux rgles de
verre. Car elle fait charnire entre deux charnires symtriques et incongruentes : lune, celle du bas, fonction 2 et 3 dim, lautre fonction
2, 3 et 4 dim, qui est celle du haut. Certes elle articule comme ses deux
battants deux projections planes de deux espaces 3 dim virtuels, en quoi
elle opre comme la charnire dun miroir deux faces formant angle
obtus ; mais elle articule aussi comme ses deux battants deux figures 3 dim
(virtuelles) dont lune celle du bas a pour modle une figure accessible
lil 3 dim (perspective visive), et lautre, celle de la marie, renvoie une
figure inconnue et proprement invisible, et de cette faon elle opre non
seulement comme une charnire 4 dim entre deux espaces 3 dim homognes, mais comme une charnire ? dim entre un espace de puissance
dimensionnelle 3 et une autre (en haut) de puissance dimensionnelle 4.
Charnire paradoxale. Elle marque non pas la sparation du haut et du
bas, mais la fois leur symtrie et leur incongruence redouble. II ne
suffit pas de faire pivoter la rgion du bas autour de sa charnire (ligne
dhorizon) pour lamener se superposer avec celle du haut ; il faudra
llever dun degr de puissance dimensionnelle, et mme alors les deux
rgions resteront incongruentes au sens ordinaire, comme la droite et
la gauche par rapport un axe vertical. Cest cette incongruence finale
qui devra tre leve par un pivotage inimaginable autour de la charnire mdiane, seule figure du Verre rclamer encore un supplment
ltendue 4 dimensionnelle de mme quil faut ajouter une troisime
dimension et lopration correspondante (rotation autour dun axe) pour
vaincre lincongruence dans le plan de deux triangles symtriques par
rapport la ligne correspondant cet axe.
22. Programme : Ensuite examiner si cette sophistication spatiale des
charnires transversales trouve un quivalent, ou son contraire, dans les
micro-rcits et les appareils quils traduisent dans la mme rgion du
Verre : refroidisseur, combat de boxe, soigneur de gravit.
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permits us to suppose that the Bachelor space was conceived as a trace

(to the second inferior degree of power) of a 4-dim figure, and it is consequently certain that its horizon line, the lower transversal, does not
represent to the real 3-dim eye of the viewer anything other than a line or
the profile of a plane. What remains enigmatic is, then, the intermediary
transversal, formed by the line of contact between the two glass rulers.
For it makes a hinge between two symmetrical and incongruent hinges:
one of them, the one below, of 2-dim and 3-dim function, the other one
having 2-, 3-, and 4-dim function, and this is the upper one. Of course
it articulates as its two flaps, two plane projections of two 3-dim virtual
spaces, and in this regard it operates like the hinge of a mirror with two
faces forming an obtuse angle. But it articulates also as its two flaps two
(virtual) 3-dim figures, of which one, the lower one, has as its model a
figure accessible to the 3-dim eye (visive perspective), and the other, that
of the Bride, refers to an unknown and strictly invisible figure, and in
this way it operates not only as a 4-dim hinge between two homogeneous
4-dim spaces, but as a ?-dim hinge between a space whose dimensional
power is 3 and another (above) whose dimensional power is 4. Paradoxical
hinge. It marks both the separation of the top and the bottom and at the
same time their symmetry and incongruence. It is not enough to make
the lower region pivot around its hinge (horizon line) in order to bring it
to superimpose itself on top of the upper region; you would have to raise
it by one degree of dimensional power, and even then the two regions
will remain incongruent in the ordinary sense, like the right and the
left in relation to a vertical axis. It is this final incongruence that will
have to be removed by an unimaginable pivoting around the median
hinge, the only figure in the Glass to claim yet another supplement from
4-dimensional area just as you have to add a third dimension and the
corresponding operation (rotation about an axis) in order to defeat the
incongruence, in the plane, of two triangles that are symmetrical in relation to the line corresponding to this axis.
22. Program: Then to examine whether this spatial sophistication of the
transversal hinges finds an equivalent, or its contrary, in the micro-tales
and the apparatuses that they translate in the same region of the Glass:
Cooler, Boxing-Match, Handler of Gravity.
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23. Programme (suite) : Resterait tablir les charnires internes au Verre

cependant, faisant pivot entre toutes les charnires narratives et toutes les
charnires plastiques.
24. Lasctisme est triple ressort : la nature arbitraire et la fonction illusionniste de la perspective (projection en bas du 3 dim rel sur du 2 dim
avec effet de 3 dim virtuel) sont pdagogiquement dmontres par la
seule transparence du support ; lil est dcontenanc par lintervention
du 4 dim en haut ; la reprsentation est laisse pour compte par la charnire mdiane.

le dernier nu
25. Le destinataire des Instructions, le machiniste : Pour commentaire
dtant donns, nous navons que des instructions de montage. Elles
sont intitules : Approximation dmontable, excute entre 1946 et 1966
New York. Et sous ce titre, entre parenthses : (par approximation jentends une marge dad libitum dans le dmontage et le remontage) . Le
lecteur des Instructions trouvera que la marge est troite : parmi les nombreux rglages quexigent les quinze oprations requises, seuls sont laisss
sa discrtion celui de la position des nuages dans leur bote de ciel et
celui de la lampe ronde qui illuminera la chute deau par transparence. Le
texte dApproximation ne sadresse pas lintelligence imaginative, mais
lhabilet et la fidlit dexcution. Le Verre est un tableau que son regardeur doit faire (DDS, 247) ; tant donns est une collection de pices
dtaches quun bricoleur doit rassembler. Dans les Notes des Botes,
Duchamp se parle lui-mme et parle tout le monde ; les Instructions
sont destines aux dcorateurs, accessoiristes et lectriciens du thtre o
se joue la scne du nu. Mme plus besoin dun metteur en scne pour la
concevoir ; seulement des mains pour la fabriquer.
26. Le destinataire d tant donns, lhritier voyeur : Les Botes renvoient une uvre en cours, a work in progress, intermine, peut-tre
interminable, retarde ; les Instructions sont testamentaires : cest fini,
je lai fait, vous ne pourrez que le refaire, voici comment. Cest fin prt,
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23. Program (continued): It would remain to establish the hinges internal

to the Glass meanwhile, making a pivot between all the narrative hinges
and all the plastic hinges.
24. Asceticism has three mainsprings: the arbitrary nature and the illusionist function of perspective (projection down below of the real 3-dim
onto something 2-dim with the effect of virtual 3-dim) are pedagogically
demonstrated by the transparence of the support alone; the eye is discountenanced by the intervention of the 4-dim up above; representation
is chucked out on the scrap heap by the median hinge.

the last nude

25. The addressee of the Instructions, the machine-operator: As a commentary
on Given, we have only some assembly instructions. They are entitled:
Approximation which can be dismantled, executed between 1946 and 1966 in New
York. And under this title, in brackets: (by approximation I mean a margin of ad libitum in the disassembly and reassembly). The reader of the
Instructions will find that the margin is narrow: among the numerous
adjustments specified by the fifteen required operations, the only ones
left to his discretion are that of the position of the clouds in their box
of sky and that of the round lamp that will illuminate from behind the
transparent waterfall. The text of the Approximation is not addressed to
imaginative intelligence, but to skill and faithfulness of execution. The
Glass is a picture its viewer must make (DDS, 247); Given is a collection
of spare parts a handyman must reassemble. In the Notes of the Boxes,
Duchamp talks to himself and to everyone; the Instructions are intended
for the set designers, propmen, and electricians of the theater where the
scene of the nude is played. Theres no longer even any need for a director
to conceive it, merely a need for hands to make it.
26. The addressee of Given, the voyeur heir: The Boxes refer to a work in
progress,* unfinished, perhaps unfinishable, delayed; the Instructions are
those of a last will and testament: it is finished, I have made it, you can
only remake it, and heres how. Its finished and ready, ready made.*
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ready made. Lexcuteur na qu raliser les prescriptions du testament.

Le discours testamentaire appartient au genre performatif : je dsigne
pour mon seul hritier M. X ; et du fait de cette seule dclaration, M.
X devient le seul hritier. Il diffre des autres performatifs en ce que son
efficace porte sur la constitution du bnficiaire, et surtout quelle est
subordonne la disparition dfinitive de lnonciateur, qui doit tre
mort. Quant lhritier ici dsign, une fois le testament ouvert et convenablement excut, cest un regardeur dun genre spcial, nomm dans
les Instructions le voyeur . Il aura la jouissance du legs, une gisante
obscne offerte ses yeux, intouchable comme dans une pornoscopie, et
quil ne pourra en rien faire prosprer et spanouir . La mme autorit
qui prescrit au lecteur des Instructions ce quil a faire, fixe au regardeur
dtant donns sa position et son rle : tu ne toucheras pas, tu ne tourneras pas autour du pudendum bant, tu ne bougeras mme pas devant
lui ; au contraire le Verre et les Notes des Botes exigeaient du regardeur
et du lecteur la plus grande agilit, la plus tenace mobilit des yeux, du
corps et de lesprit.
27. Transfert du rcit sur limage : cette immobilit qui corste le corps
du regardeur et le transforme en voyeur, correspond la disparition complte, dans lApproximation, du rcit (mme prcaire) et des descriptions
et projets qui accompagnaient celui-ci dans les Botes. Des modes demploi pour machinistes, expurges de toute narration, prparent une scne
insolemment figurative. Cest le rapport inverse de celui des Botes avec
le Verre o la scne suggre par le rcit lmentaire de la mise nu, que
donnent les textes, est dfigure (dfigurative) en agencements mcaniques insenss et dralise par la transparence du support. Il est insuffisant, et en partie inexact, de dire que la machinerie visible de la Marie
passe dans les coulisses dtant donns.. ; il est notable en revanche que
la fonction narrative, mme dficiente, assure par les Notes des Botes,
est transfre la scne visible de la dernire uvre. Si une histoire est
raconte ici, ce nest plus au lecteur, cest au voyeur. Elle nest plus crite ;
lui de se la raconter ; elle est virtuelle.
28. Premier groupe de charnires entre les deux ensembles : cration en
cours versus excution aprs coup ; spculations pour soi et en soi versus
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The executor has only to carry out the prescriptions of the testament. The
testamentary discourse belongs to the performative genre: I designate as my
sole heir Monsieur X; and by the fact of this declaration alone, Monsieur X
becomes the sole heir. It differs from the other performatives in that its efficacy
concerns the constitution of the beneficiary, and especially in that this is subordinated to the definitive disappearance of the enunciator, who has to be dead.
As for the heir who is designated here, after the testament has been opened
and suitably executed, he is a viewer of a special kind, called the voyeur in
the Instructions. He will have the pleasure of the legacy, an obscene reclining
figure opened to his eyes, untouchable as in a pornoscope, and that he will not
in any way be able to make prosper and blossom out. The same authority
that prescribes to the reader of the Instructions what he has to do fixes for the
viewer of Given his position and his role: thou shalt not touch, thou shalt not
turn about the gaping pudendum, thou shalt not even move in front of it; on
the contrary the Glass and the Notes of the Boxes required of the spectator and
the reader the greatest agility, the most tenacious mobility of the eyes, of the
body, and of the mind.
27. Transference of the tale onto the image: To this immobility that corsets the
body of the viewer and transforms him into a voyeur, there corresponds the
complete disappearance, in the Approximation, of the tale (albeit precarious)
and of the descriptions and plans that accompanied it in the Boxes. User
instructions for machine operators, expurgated of all narration, prepare an
insolently figurative scene. Its the inverse relation to that of the Boxes to
the Glass, where the scene suggested by the elementary tale of the stripping
bare, which is given by the texts, is disfigured (defiguratived) into insensate
mechanical linkages and derealized by the transparency of the support. It
is insufficient, and in part inexact, to say that the visible machinery of the
Large Glass passes behind the scenes of Given; it is notable on the other hand
that the narrative function (albeit a deficient one) provided by the Notes on
the Boxes is transferred to the visible scene of the last work. If a story is told
here, it is no longer to the reader; its to the voyeur. The story is no longer
written; its up to him to tell it to himself; the story is virtual.
28. First group of hinges between the two ensembles: creation in progress versus
execution after the fact; speculations for themselves and in themselves versus
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prescriptions faire observer par dautres ; discours narrativis versus discours excutoire ; aplat non figuratif versus volume raliste. La charnire
parat ainsi aise dterminer, et trs peu paradoxale logiquement : cest
un groupe de disjonctions exclusives fortes. La dernire uvre tournerait
rsolument le dos la prcdente.
29. Dcisions loges dans le titre : Pourtant il sagit dune histoire, et de
la mme ici et l. tant donns : 1) la chute deau, 2) le gaz dclairage
(noter que la graphie de Duchamp place toujours le 2) sous le 1), et
non ct) est une citation fragmentaire dune Note de la Bote Verte
(1934 : DDS, 43-44), qui se prsente sous deux versions, lune intitule
Prface , lautre Avertissement . Ce titre gnral est par ailleurs
monnay en deux sous-titres : tant donn le gaz dclairage (DDS, 76)
introduit au rcit, tendu sur plusieurs Notes, des transformations subies
par le gaz ; tant donne la chute deau (DDS, 89) forme le titre dune
Note unique qui porte deux croquis, lun du Moulin eau (paysage) ,
lautre d une sorte de jet deau arrivant de loin en demi-cercle pardessus les moules mlic . Que Duchamp choisisse cette Prface ou cet
Avertissement pour titre de la dernire uvre implique plusieurs dcisions : 1 le titre en sera plus logique (voir ici 7-10) que narratif, ce
qui concourt avec llimination du rcit dans lcrit ; 2 renvoyant un
avertissement prcdent touchant la problmatique qui a prsid la
fabrication du Verre, il en annonce donc la reprise neuf, le recommencement ; 3) cette problmatique de lAvertissement tant de nature
thorique, le titre de la dernire uvre devra relier le dispositif spculaire
qui est celui de sa plastique avec les spculations antrieures ; 4) eau
et gaz appartenant lun et lautre la rgion clibataire du Verre, le
titre indiquera quen dpit des apparences, lespace o sexhibe plein
lintimit femelle est celui des hommes seuls.
30. Explication du titre : Le texte de la Bote Verte est domin par lanalogie photographique : Repos instantan [], meilleure exposition du
Repos extra-rapide [de la pose extra-rapide] [], exposition extra-rapide
dune part, et de lautre tant donns (dans lobscurit) , repris en
Soit, donns dans lobscurit , ces termes circonscrivent un problme :
celui de limpression dune surface sensible, plonge dans lobscurit, par
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prescriptions to cause others to observe; a narrativized discourse versus an

executory discourse; a non-figurative flattening versus a realist volume.
The hinge thus appears easy to determine and logically not at all paradoxical: its a group of strong exclusive disjunctions. The last work would
resolutely turn its back on the one before.
29. Decisions residing in the title: And yet we are dealing with a story, and the
same one here as there. Given: (1) the waterfall, (2) the illuminating gas (note
that Duchamps written form always places the 2 under the 1, and not
beside it) is a fragmentary quotation from a Note in the Green Box (1934:
DDS, 43-44), which presents itself in two versions: one entitled Preface,
the other, Foreword. This general title is furthermore converted into
two subtitles: Given the illuminating [lamplight] gas (DDS, 76) introduces
to the tale, extended over several Notes, some transformations undergone
by the gas; Given the waterfall (DDS, 89) forms the title of a unique Note
that bears two sketches, one of a Water mill (landscape), the other of A
sort of water-jet arriving from far away in a semi-circle over the Malic
Molds. That Duchamp should pick this Preface or this Foreword as the
title of his last work implies several decisions: 1) its title will be more logical (see above, paragraphs 7-10) than narrative, which goes along with the
elimination of the tale in the writing; 2) referring to a previous foreword
touching on the problematic that presided over the making of the Glass,
he announces its resumption from zero, its recommencement; 3) this
problematic of the Foreword being of a theoretical nature, the title of
the last work will have to link the specular device of his sculpture with
the earlier speculations; and 4) water and gas both belonging to the
Bachelor region of the Glass, the title will indicate that in spite of appearances, the space where female intimacy is exhibited fully is that of men
alone.
30. Explanation of the title: The text of the Green Box is dominated by the
photographic analogy: Snapshot rest [] best exposure of the extrarapid Sleep [of the extra-rapid pose][] extra-rapid exposure on the
one hand, and on the other Given (in darkness) taken up in Let there
be, given in darkness, these terms circumscribe a problem: that of the
impression of a sensitive surface, plunged into darkness, by luminous
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les rayons lumineux manant des mouvements contraires dune chute

deau et dune combustion de gaz. Le temps dexposition ou de pose
devra tre extrmement bref. Lintrt de Duchamp pour la fixation du
mouvement sur une surface nest pas nouveau, il commande ses tudes
partir de 1911. retenir seulement quaprs des essais dinspiration
chrono-photographique, il se tourne vers une solution quon pourrait
appeler acinmatique, et dont laxiome serait : mobile trs vite, temps
dexposition trs court, et image dnue des signes du mouvement.
Premire approximation insuffisante. Les mouvements contraires de
chute et dascension (eau et gaz) donnent lieu une succession [un
ensemble] de faits divers semblant se ncessiter lun lautre par des lois ,
ou encore plusieurs collisions semblant se succder rigoureusement
chacune chacune suivant des lois . Ce ne sont donc pas les mouvements qui devront tre fixs sur la surface sensible, mais leurs collisions
(dites aussi attentats ) ; ou plus prcisment, la squence de ces collisions. Cette squence est constitue dune succession de contacts ( faits
divers ) entre eau et gaz ; elle nest pas un mouvement simple, soit un
rapport entre un espace et un temps, mais un mouvement de deuxime
degr (apparent), constitu par le rapport entre le temps pris par la srie
dans son ensemble et les positions spatiales diverses qui rsultent de chacune des collisions. Dans un tel mouvement, le temps semble soumettre
le divers des figures du contact eau/gaz des lois rigoureuses, puisque
lensemble suggre lunit dune conscution.
Vient alors lnonc du projet proprement dit : les conditions du
temps de pose optimum pour fixer le temps de la squence des collisions
tant dtermines , on isolera le signe de la concordance entre cette
exposition extra-rapide (capable de toutes les excentricits) dune part et
le choix des possibilits lgitimes par ces lois dautre part . Il est prcis peu aprs que si lon appelle a lexposition et b les dites possibilits,
le signe recherch est identifier comme la barre du rapport a/b.
Ce qui rend lnonc de lAvertissement passablement tautologique, car
lexposition nest autre que le temps de pose et le choix des possibilits
consiste dabord dterminer les paramtres spatio-temporels (comme :
dure, frquence, amplitude) de la suite des collisions, soit les lois
qui la constituent comme telle. Si bien quen remplaant les valeurs par
les lettres a et b qui leur correspondent, on obtient : dterminer le a de
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rays emanating from the contrary movements of a waterfall and of a combustion of gas. The exposure-time or pose-time will have to be extremely
short. Duchamps interest in the fixing of movement on a surface is not
new; it governs his studies from 1911 onward. Let us note only that after
some attempts inspired by time-lapse photography, he turns toward a
solution that one could call a-cinematic, and whose axiom would be: for a
very fast mobile object, a very short exposure time and an image denuded
of signs of movement.
A first insufficient approximation. The contrary movements of fall and
rise (water and gas) give place to a succession [an ensemble] of diverse
facts seeming to necessitate each other mutually by laws, or else to several collisions seeming to succeed each other rigorously one after the
other following laws. Thus its not the movements that must be fixed on
the sensitive surface, but their collisions (or criminal attempts); or more
precisely, the sequence of these collisions. This sequence is constituted by
a succession of contacts (diverse facts) between water and gas; it is not a
simple movement, namely a relation between a space and a time, but an
(apparent) second degree movement, constituted by the relation between
the time taken by the series in its entirety and the diverse spatial positions
that result from each of the collisions. In such a movement, time seems
to submit the diversity of the figures of the water/gas contact to rigorous
laws, for the whole set suggests the unity of a consecutive order.
There comes then the statement of the project properly speaking:
because the conditions of the optimum pose-time for fixing the time of
the sequence of collisions are determined, one can isolate the sign of
the concordance between this ultra-rapid exposure (capable of all eccentricities) on the one hand and the choice of the possibilities legitimized by
these laws on the other hand. Shortly after, it is explained that if you call
the exposure a and the said possibilities b, the sought-for sign is to be
identified as the bar of the relation a/b. Which makes the statement of
the Foreword fairly tautological, for the exposure is none other than the
pose-time, and the choice of possibilities consists first of all in determining the spatio-temporal parameters (like duration, frequency, amplitude)
of the succession of collisions, i.e., the laws that constitute it as such. So
much so that by replacing the values by the letters a and b corresponding
to them, you get: Determine the a of b in order to isolate the sign of the
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b pour isoler le signe de la concordance entre a et b. Et en dveloppant :

tant donne une suite de rencontres entre les mouvements contraires de
leau et du gaz, dterminer le temps dexposition qui soit en concordance
(mais le mot va tre rejet) avec les paramtres temporels de la srie de
ces rencontres.
Comme il sagit denregistrer une srie de faits divers, il est lgitime de
penser que le temps de pose ne sera pas une dure simple dexposition,
mais un rythme dterminant lalternance des ouvertures et fermetures de
lobjectif aux rayons lumineux manant de la srie. Ce qui nous ramne
au chronophotographe et au cinmatographe. Et Duchamp y a song :
Faire un tableau de sculpture comme on enroule une bobine de filmcinma chaque tour, sur une grande bobine (plusieurs mtres de diamtre si ncessaire), une nouvelle vue continuant le prcdent tour et
le reliant au suivant (DDS, 107) ; mais il ajoute : Cette continuit
pourra navoir rien de commun avec celle du film cinmatographique ou
y ressembler. La question dcisive est de savoir si la surface portant les
photogrammes doit tre vue en mouvement ou en repos ; il suffit quelle
soit anime, et dun mouvement identique celui de la prise de vue,
pour que soit cre aux yeux du regardeur lillusion du mouvement rel
(celui des collisions). Cette illusion implique quil ny a plus de signe
perceptible dune quelconque concordance entre le temps de pose
et le temps du sujet enregistr. Mais si la surface dinscription conserve
ensemble, immobiles, les traces impressionnes, non seulement ce signe
restera perceptible, il apparatra comme ce qui dtermine lapparence
(ds lors allgorique ) du mouvement rel . Et cest pourquoi les
lois des collisions ne font que sembler lgitimer le choix des
possibilits , elles sont de fait aussi bien occasionnes par lui, car les
caractristiques de la prise de vue organisent le sujet (ici la srie des collisions) tout autant que linverse.
Or le Verre est bien en effet ce signe isol, surface sensible (rtine)
immobile o viennent sinscrire les faits divers du rcit selon des possibilits minuteusement choisies par Duchamp, et telles que le regardeur
naura littralement rien voir sil les nglige. Mais tant donns ?

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concordance between a and b. And developing this: Given a succession of

encounters between the contrary movements of water and gas, determine
the exposure-time that is in concordance (but the word will be rejected)
with the temporal parameters of the series of these encounters.
Because it is a question of recording a series of diverse facts, it is legitimate to think that the pose-time will not be a simple duration of exposure,
but a rhythm determining the alternation of the openings and closings of
the objective lens to the light rays emanating from the series. Which brings
us back to the time-lapse photographer and to the cinematographer. And
Duchamp thought of it: To make a sculpture-picture like you would wind
a reel of cinema-film at each turn, on a large reel (several metres in diameter if necessary), a new shot continuing the previous turn and linking it
to the following one (DDS, 107); but he adds: This continuity could have
nothing in common with that of the cinematographic film, or resemble
it. The decisive question is to know if the surface bearing the photograms
must be seen in movement or at rest; it is enough for it to be animated and
with a movement identical to that of the filming, in order that there be
created in the eyes of the viewer the illusion of the real movement (that of
the collisions). This illusion implies that there is no longer any perceptible
sign of any concordance between the time of the pose and the time of
the recorded subject. But if the surface of inscription preserves together,
immobile, the impressed traces, not only will this sign remain perceptible,
but it will appear as what determines the (henceforth allegorical) appearance of the real movement. And that is why the laws of the collisions
merely seem to legitimize the choice of possibilities. They are, in fact,
just as much occasioned by it, for the characteristics of the filming organize the subject (in this case the series of collisions) just as much as the other
way around.
But the Glass is indeed this isolated sign, an immobile sensitive surface (retina) on which the diverse facts of the story come to be inscribed,
according to the possibilities meticulously chosen by Duchamp, and such
that the viewer will have literally nothing to see if he ignores them. But
what about Given?

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31. Inversion du rapport de lapparence et de lapparition : La dernire

uvre parat tout au contraire effacer ce signe et ne donner voir que la
squence ou rcit des collisions. Sa plastique semble contredire parfaitement son titre si on lentend comme on vient de le faire. Cest ce quon
comprendra plus facilement si lon se souvient que dans lAvertissement
la pose est dite aussi apparence . Duchamp oppose constamment lapparence dun objet son apparition. La premire est lensemble des
donnes sensorielles usuelles permettant davoir une perception ordinaire
de cet objet (DDS, 120), la seconde est le moule (formel) de la
premire, par exemple limage 2 dim en perspective dun objet 3 dim,
ou encore son ngatif (photographique) . Le rapport a/b de tout
lheure est celui de lapparence et de lapparition respectivement. Le Verre
montre les apparitions des apparences, il est comme le ngatif des deux
ensembles dobjets, clibataires et marie, qui dautre part relvent despaces diffrents. tant donns parat tout au contraire proposer la seule
apparence de ce quil fait voir. Ce que le regardeur voit sur le Verre, cest
lil et mme le cerveau en train de composer ses objets, il voit les images
de ceux-ci impressionner la rtine et le cortex selon des lois de (d)formation qui sont les leurs et qui organisent la paroi de verre. Mais quand
le voyeur met ses yeux dans les trous de la porte espagnole, il semble
navoir quune perception ordinaire des objets quil voit. Le Verre,
tant la pellicule, donne voir les conditions dimpression qui rgnent
lintrieur de la bote optique ; tant donns, tant cette bote rgle
sur son champ, montre les objets extrieurs qui y apparaissent vus de son
intrieur (chambre noire).
La fonction dominante dans les titres est inverse par rapport celle
qui gouverne les uvres plastiques : narrative pour luvre dascse, elle
est logique pour luvre de sduction. Si le logique est au narratif comme
lapparition est lapparence, on dira que le tableau des apparitions porte
un titre dapparence, et le monument des apparences un nom dapparition. La charnire dexclusion entre les deux uvres opre donc dans ce
double registre aussi ; mais elle fonctionne dans les deux sens, et comme
les titres ne sont pas moins importants que les uvres qui les portent,
cette rversion interdit de prendre le montage illusionniste dtant donns pour un banal traquenard sduction.

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31. Inversion of the relation between appearance and apparition: The last work
appears, on the contrary, to efface this sign and to show only the sequence
or story of the collisions. Its plastic art seems to contradict its title perfectly, if you take it in the sense just given. This is something you will
understand more easily if you remember that in the Foreword the pose
is said to be also appearance. Duchamp constantly opposes the appearance of an object to its apparition. The appearance is the ensemble of
usual sensory data permitting us to have an ordinary perception of this
object (DDS, 120); the apparition is the (formal) mold of the appearance, for example, the 2-dim image in perspective of a 3-dim object or
else its (photographic) negative. The relation a/b of a moment ago is that
of appearance and apparition, respectively. The Glass shows the apparitions of the appearances; it is like the negative of the two sets of objects,
Bachelors and Bride, which, moreover, derive from different spaces. Given
appears, on the contrary, to offer merely the appearance of what it makes
us see. What the viewer sees on the Glass is the eye and even the brain in
the process of composing its objects, the images of these objects impressing the retina and the cortex according to laws of (de-)formation, which
are their own and that organize the glass partition. But when the voyeur
puts his eyes in the holes of the Spanish gate, he seems to have only an
ordinary perception of the objects he sees. The Glass, being the film, lets
us see the conditions of impression that reign on the inside of the optical box; Given, being this box regulated as to its field, shows the external
objects that appear there to be seen from its inside (dark chamber).
The dominant function in the respective titles is inverted with regard
to the one that governs the plastic works: this being a narrative function
for the ascetic work, a logical one for the work of seduction. If the logical is to narrative as the apparition is to the appearance, one will say that
the apparitions-picture bears an appearance-title and the appearancesmonument an apparition-name. The hinge of exclusion between the two
works thus operates in this double register also. But it functions in both
directions, and as the titles are no less important than the works that bear
them, this reversion forbids us to take the illusionist montage of Given as
a banal seduction-trap.

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32. Suit une srie doprations faisant charnires entre le chariot du Verre
et le bti d tant donns: Lhypothse est que le btis (ainsi lcrit
Duchamp, pourquoi ?) dtant donns qui occupe, renferme en lui et
fraie un espace 3 dim, et dont le volume nest pas sans analogie avec celui
du chariot du Verre, est une machine clibataire. (Et quil est lui-mme
sa propre Bote.)
a) Ce chariot se prsente en costume dmancipation, cachant dans son
sein le paysage du moulin eau (DDS, 88). Dans le Verre, le moulin seul
est visible, non leau ni le paysage. Dans Cols alits, merge le paysage.
Dans la dernire uvre, le paysage et la chute deau, sinon le moulin,
sont en pleine lumire, comme toile de fond. On se souvient que le jet
deau devait provenir du fond de lhorizon clibataire, pour venir choir
au premier plan, dans le bti du chariot. Lespace scnique dtant donns serait encadr dans quelque chose comme le paralllipipde droit
du chariot (bien que ce ne soit pas exactement le cas ; mais lhypothse
est seulement heuristique). Il aurait pour horizon le paysage, ici sorti de
sa cache.
b) Le point de fuite du cube (au sens perspectiviste) dtant donns serait donn par la vulve. Perspective lgrement plongeante, lil
du voyeur tant plac plus haut ( 1,536 m) que la table qui supporte le
nu ; cest linverse du rapport des altitudes respectives des clibataires et
de la marie dans le Verre. Mais la position du point de fuite ne pourrait tre vrifiable que par photo (ce quoi lApproximation nous invite
frquemment).
c) La double paroi, portail avec les deux trous du voyeur et mur de
briques avec son chancrure, serait lanalogue dans lespace clibataire, de
la double paroi du Refroidisseur qui spare le haut et le bas du Verre. Ce
refroidisseur sera un verre transparent. Plusieurs plaques de verre les unes
au-dessus des autres (DDS, 59). Ici, o la machine ne fonctionne qu
lhorizontale, lesdites plaques seraient les unes derrire les autres, comme
des lentilles dappareil optique, quil faut donc imaginer places aux trous
de la porte et dans la brche du mur.
d) Linterstice imperceptible cras entre les deux plaques transversales,
cest--dire la ligne transversale mdiane du Verre, aurait pour analogue
la chambre noire qui dans tant donns spare porte et mur : la porte
est lhorizon clibataire du Verre, le mur les Vtements de la marie, soit
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32. There follows a series of operations forming hinges between the trolley of the
Glass and the frame of Given: The hypothesis is that the btis [a-frames]
(Duchamp writes it like that, why?) of Given, which occupies, encloses in
itself, and opens up a 3-dim space, the volume of which is not without
analogy to that of the trolley of the Glass, is a Bachelor machine. (And that
it is its own Box unto itself.)
a) This trolley presents itself dressed up as Emancipation, concealing in its
bosom the landscape of the water-mill (DDS, 88). In the Glass, only the mill
is visible, not the water or the landscape. In Cols alits, the landscape
emerges. In the last work, the landscape and the waterfall, if not the mill,
are in full light, as a backdrop. You recall that the water jet had to come
from the back of the Bachelor horizon in order to come falling down onto
the foreground, into the frame of the trolley. The scenic space of Given
would be framed in something like the right-angled parallelipiped of the
trolley (although this is not exactly the case; but the hypothesis is merely
heuristic). It would have as its horizon the landscape, here coming forth
from its hiding place.
b) The vanishing point of the cube (in the perspectivist sense) of
Given would be given by the vulva. A slightly plunging perspective, the
voyeurs eye being placed higher up (at a height of 1.536 meters) than the
table that supports the nude; its the inverse of the relation of the respective altitudes of the Bachelors and the Bride in the Glass. But the position of the vanishing point would be verifiable only by photo (which the
Approximation frequently invites us to do).
c) The double partition, the portal with the two voyeurs holes and brick
wall with its indentation, would be the analogue in the Bachelor space of
the double partition of the Cooler that separates the top and the bottom of
the Glass. This cooler will be a transparent glass. Several panes of glass on
top of each other (DDS, 59). Here, where the machine functions only on
the horizontal, the said panes of glass would be one behind the other, like
the lens elements of an optical apparatus, which we must therefore imagine placed on the holes of the door and in the breach in the wall.
d) The imperceptible interstice crushed between the two transverse
panes, i.e., the transverse median line of the Glass, would have as its analogue the dark chamber that in Given separates door and wall: the door is
the Bachelor horizon of the Glass; the wall is the Clothes of the Bride, or,
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respectivement la transversale infrieure et la suprieure. Cette distance

immuable cloue les yeux leur point de vue et la femme son point
dexhibition optimum (point de fuite). Le voyeur est un regardeur sans
dimension, rduit son point.
e) Les trous dans la porte et la brche dans le mur de briques : le
Combat de boxe a ouvert lhorizon clibataire en soulevant les deux
bliers qui le ferment, coups de bille (dil) ; et les Vtements de la
marie, soutenus par ces bliers, ont t dgrafs. Le Combat de boxe
est un rouage lubrique (DDS, 59). Inexcut dans le Verre, il nest pas
visible dans tant donns parce quil est ce qui fait voir.
f ) Mais pour un instant seulement : un ressort devait refermer les orifices en faisant retomber les bliers. Ce ressort marque le destin rserv
ici au voyeur : il voit tout dun coup, dans linstantan de louverture du
diaphragme. De ce fait il ne voit pas plus que ne voit une pellicule sensible, il est impressionn, comme elle. Augenblick, point de temps.
g) Le primtre du diaphragme est donn par le contour irrgulier de la
brche. De laccouplement de ces deux apparences de la virginit pure
[celle de la mise nu par les clibataires, celle imaginative-volontaire de
la marie] de leur collision dpend tout lpanouissement (DDS, 63).
La brche rsulterait de cette collision. Elle dtermine le cadre de lapparence, elle est le moule ou lapparition de lpanouissement. Mais il ny a
dyeux que pour celui-ci.
h) Si la porte correspond la ligne dhorizon clibataire du Verre, et
si la chute deau qui devait venir tomber au premier plan sur le moulin
est rejete au fond dans la dernire uvre, cest que lespace du bas est
ici pris revers : le voyeur regarde partir de lquivalent de la transversale infrieure, du fond du Verre, en direction de son avant-scne. Il
devrait voir le regardeur du Verre. Ltonnant est quil voit la femme
qui devrait tre la fois derrire lui et au-dessus de lui. En tout cas il a
fallu quelle tombe.
i) Le dispositif serait spculaire (et non plus miroirique ). Le plan
de la brche serait celui dun tableau qui couperait les pyramides visives
ayant pour sommets les trous du voyeur. Dans une organisation de ce
type, le point de vue et le point de fuite sont symtriques : sil est vrai
que le second est la vulve, celle-ci est limage spculaire des yeux voyeurs ;
ou : quand ceux-ci croient voir la vulve, ils se voient. Con celui qui voit.
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respectively, the lower and upper transverse line. This immutable distance nails
the eyes to their viewing point and the woman to her optimum point of exhibition
(vanishing point). The voyeur is a viewer without dimension, reduced to his point.
e) The holes in the door and the breach in the brick wall: the Boxing Match
opened the Bachelor horizon by raising the two rams that close it, with shots of
a marble (with glances),5 and the Clothes of the Bride, supported by these rams,
have been unhooked. The Boxing Match is a lubricious gear-train (DDS, 59). Not
executed in the Glass, it is not visible in Given because it is what makes for seeing.
f) But for an instant only: a spring was meant to close up the orifices by making
the rams fall back again. This spring marks the fate reserved here for the voyeur:
he sees suddenly, in the snapshot of the opening of the diaphragm. Because of
this he sees no more than is seen by a sensitive film, he is impressed, like the film.
Augenblick, point in time, no time at all.
g) The perimeter of the diaphragm is given by the irregular contour of the
breach. On the coupling of these two appearances of pure virginity [that of the
stripping bare by the Bachelors, and the wilful-imaginative one of the Bride] on
their collision depends the whole blossoming (DDS, 63). The breach would result
from this collision. It determines the frame of the appearance; it is the mold or the
apparition of the blossoming. But there are eyes only for the blossoming.
h) If the door corresponds to the Bachelor horizon line of the Glass, and if the
waterfall that was meant to come falling down into the foreground onto the mill
is thrown back into the background in the last work, its because the lower space
is here taken back to front: the voyeur looks out from the equivalent of the lower
transversal line, from the upstage area of the Glass, in the direction of its downstage area. He ought to see the viewer of the Glass. The astonishing thing is that
he sees the woman who ought to be both behind him and above him. In any case
it was necessary that she should fall.
i) The device would be specular (and no longer mirrorish). The plane of the
breach would be that of a picture that would cut the visive pyramids that have
as their summits the voyeurs holes. In an organization of this type, the viewing
point and the vanishing point are symmetrical: If it is true that the latter is the
vulva, then the vulva is the specular image of the voyeur-eyes; or: When these
eyes think they see the vulva, they are seeing themselves. A cunt is he who sees.

en soulevant les deux bliers qui le ferment, coups de bille (dil) [translators note].

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j) Seulement le plan de ce tableau perspectiviste reste virtuel, il ny a

pas de verre ni aucun support dans la brche du mur sur lequel sinscriraient rellement les projections planes du nu 3 dim. Cest certes l que
sinstallerait le portillon de Drer, comme le suggre Jean Clair.4 Comme
cest la place des illetons quil faudrait placer lappareil photo si lon
voulait photographier la scne (une fois les panneaux suprieurs de la
porte carts sur leurs glissires : cinquime Opration de lApproximation). Reste que la vitre ny est pas.
k) Le lino carreaux noirs et blancs plac sur le sol de la scne est
entirement invisible, comme doit ltre le carroyage qui sert monter
la perspective chez Alberti et les autres. Comme laxe de vue sur le nu
est lgrement plongeant, le plan du fond portant ciel, paysage et chute
deau devra tre mont un peu inclin vers larrire ( angle avec le sol,
91 ou 92 , Approximation, 2). Duchamp rouvre ainsi langle que forme
ce plan avec les rayons visuels, pour creuser la profondeur du champ.
Vicenze, Scamozzi relve les planchers des vedute du Teatro Olimpico
pour obtenir le mme effet. porter encore au compte illusionniste, une
lgre inclinaison vers lavant du nu sur la table ( vrifier).
l) Charnire perspectiviste : le 3 dim rel (sujet) est projet sur du 2
dim rel (support) ; celui-ci donne un effet optique de 3 dim (virtuel :
apparence). Charnire dtant donns : le 3 dim rel (le sujet quest le
nu dans les buissons, et lespace de la scne) donnerait un effet optique
de 2 dim (virtuel : la surface dun support plac dans la brche, mais
inexistant).
m) corriger. Charnire Duchamp dans le bas du Verre : cest la charnire perspectiviste avec une articulation supplmentaire : le 3 dim virtuel de lapparence donne un effet optique de 2 dim ( cause de la transparence du support, et du traitement des figures analogue celui dun
bleu darchitecte). Charnire Duchamp dans tant donns : le 2
dim virtuel est trait pour produire un effet optique 3 dim virtuel, selon
le modle du dispositif stroscopique (DHarnoncourt et Hopps)5 ou
anaglyphique (Jean Clair).6 Ce modle exige deux illetons, et non un
4
5
6

Article cit, 157-159.

tant Donns : 1 la chute deau, 2 le gaz dclairage. Reflections on a New Work by Marcel Duchamp, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973.
Article cit.

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j) But the plane of this perspectivist picture remains virtual: there is

no glass nor any support in the breach in the wall on which the plane
projections of the 3-dim nude would really be inscribed. There, of course,
is where Drers gate would be installed, as Jean Clair suggests.6 Just as
its in the place of the eye-holes that the camera should be placed if one
wanted to photograph the scene (after the upper panels of the door have
been moved aside on their runners: fifth Operation of the Approximation).
Whats left is that the window pane is not there.
k) The black-and-white squared lino placed on the ground of the scene is
entirely invisible, as the squaring must be that serves to set up the perspective in Alberti and the others. As the axis of sight on the nude is plunging,
the background plane bearing the sky, landscape, and waterfall will have to
be set up leaning a bit toward the back (angle with the ground, 91 or 92,
Approximation, 2). Duchamp thus reopens the angle that this plane forms
with the visual rays, in order to hollow out the depth of the field.7 In Vicenza,
Scamozzi raises the floor-boards of the vedute of the Teatro Olimpico to obtain
the same effect. Something else to be entered to the credit of the illusionist: a
slight inclining of the nude on the table toward the front (to be verified).
l) Perspectivist hinge: the 3-dim real (subject) is projected on something
2-dim and real (support); the latter gives an optical effect of 3-dim (virtual:
appearance). Hinge of Given: the 3-dim real (the subject that is the nude in
the bushes, and the space of the stage) would give an optical effect of 2-dim
(virtual: the surface of a support placed in the breach, but non-existent).
m) To be corrected. Duchamps hinge in the bottom part of the Glass:
its the perspectivist hinge with a supplementary articulation. The virtual
3-dim of appearance gives an optical effect of 2-dim (because of the transparence of the support and of the treatment of the figures analogous to
that of an architects blueprint). Duchamps hinge in Given: the virtual
2-dim is treated in order to produce an optical effect of 3-dim virtual,
according to the model of the stereoscopic device (DHarnoncourt and
Hopps)8 or anaglyphic device (Jean Clair).9 This model requires two
6
7
8
9

Article quoted, 157-159.

Possibly a pun: pour creuser la profondeur du champ suggests Duchamp profundity being increased [translators note].
tant donns: 1 la chute deau, 2 le gaz dclairage. Reflections on a New Work by Marcel Duchamp, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973.
Article quoted.

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seul. Allusion encore ce modle, le fait que le bti est soutenu dans sa
longueur par deux longerons rouges, et le spot clairant le sexe par un
portant transversal vert : cette opposition chromatique renvoie aux cartes
postales effet stroscopique, comme Pharmacie (1914), mais galement
aux traffic lights du chemin de fer de Paris Rouen : elle signale donc en
outre les ples lmentaires de la cinmatique, mouvement et repos.
n) En regard de la fantastique charnire despaces pluri-dimensionnels qui dmultiplie le Verre, la drisoire fantaisie stroscopique dtant
donns En face de lasctisme tourn contre les habitudes visuelles et
de la svre pdagogie machinique, la pornographie du voyeurisme et la
furtive machination exhibitionniste. ct des rigides orthogonales du
Verre, lirrgularit de la brche dans le mur, et celle du pentagone que
forme lespace scnique o est plac le nu (ici 47).
o) Dans le Verre, la pellicule sensible recevant les impressions tait la
surface vitre elle-mme ; dans tant donns, cest lil. Renversement
avant/ arrire (voir h. ici). En outre la pellicule de verre portait ostensiblement les marques des conditions dexposition et dimpression auxquelles
elle tait soumise ; et donc le Verre ntait pas seulement la pellicule, mais
lappareil enregistreur avec tous ses rglages impliqus. Dans la dernire
uvre, ces conditions sont invisibles comme lappareil ; celui-ci commande la vision.
p) De l la rversion des temps. Celui du regardeur se dpense et se
retarde dans les mouvements dil, de corps, dintelligence ncessaires
la pntration du Verre : luvre senveloppe de la longue dure dun
parcours de rseaux. Au voyeur dtant donns, il nest rien laiss dun
tel temps, nul besoin que des crans tombent, que des angles de vue se
corrigent pour arriver distinguer, il na plus qu voir dun seul coup et
sur le champ, impitoyablement. Furtivit soudain vaine, foudroye.
q) Mais alors tant donns ne romprait nullement avec lasctisme
du regard que poursuivait le Verre, il laccomplirait l o le Verre le
manque, dans lordre temporel. Soit le dsir de prendre et didentifier
par la vue : la btise de ce dsir accompli photographiquement serait plus
radicale que lintelligence du mme dsir repoussant sans fin, spculativement, de saccomplir. Plus radicale en matire dascse par rapport aux
sens (significations, sensibilits, sensualits) que nest la rigidit critique
huguenote , telle serait la scne paenne.
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eye-holes, not one. A further allusion to this model: the fact that the frame
is supported in its length by two red girders and the spotlight lighting up
the sex is supported by a green transversal stand. This chromatic opposition
refers to the postcards with a stereoscopic effect, like Pharmacy (1914), but
equally to the traffic lights* of the railway from Paris to Rouen: it thus indicates
as well the elementary poles of kinematics, movement, and rest.
n) In comparison to the fantastic hinge of pluri-dimensional spaces that
demultiplies the Glass, the derisory stereoscopic fantasy of Given. Over against
that asceticism turned against visual habits and in the face of that severe
machinesque pedagogy, here we have the pornography of voyeurism and
furtive exhibitionist machination. Beside the rigid orthogonals of the Glass,
there is the irregularity of the breach in the wall and that of the pentagon
formed by the theatrical space in which the nude is placed (see following,
section 47).
o) In the Glass, the sensitive film receiving the impressions was the glazed
surface itself; in Given, its the eye. Reversal of in-front-of/behind (see h, above).
Furthermore, the film of glass ostensibly bore the marks of the conditions of
exposure and impression to which it was subjected; and thus the Glass was not
only the film but also the recording apparatus with all its implied settings. In
the last work, these conditions are invisible like the apparatus; this apparatus
governs vision.
p) Hence the reversal of the times. That of the viewer is expended and
retarded in the movements of eye, of body, and of intelligence necessary for
penetrating the Glass: the work is enveloped in the long duration of crossing
networks. For the voyeur of Given, nothing is left of such a time, no need for
screens to fall, for angles of sight to be corrected in order to manage to distinguish. Theres nothing left for him to do but to see all at once and on the spot,
pitilessly. Furtiveness, suddenly in vain, is struck down in a flash.
q) But then Given would not break at all with the asceticism of the gaze that
the Glass was seeking. It would accomplish it in the very place where the Glass
misses it, in the temporal order, that is, the desire to take and to identify by
sight: The stupidity of this desire accomplished photographically would be
more radical than the intelligence of the same desire postponing endlessly,
speculatively, its own accomplishment. More radical in terms of asceticism
in relation to the senses (meanings, sensitivities, sensualities) than is the
Huguenot critical rigidity such would be the pagan scene.
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33. Charnires portant sur thmes, lments et matriaux, le nu invalide :

Le nu 3 dim dtant donns est incomplet : la tte est forme de deux
coquilles lisses ; manquent lavant-bras droit, la cheville et le pied droit,
le pied gauche. Cependant le mme objet apparat complet lil du
voyeur, les parties absentes tant caches. La marie de son ct est
incomplte : appareil gnital et seins. Mais les deux incompltudes ne
sont pas congruentes : lune est masque par les angles morts du cadrage
et les crans du dcor, tandis que lautre procde dune dconstruction
plane parfaitement visible. Les deux femmes sont invalides, et toutes
deux par projection, mais celle du Verre parce que son modle 4 dim
est intraduisible dans lespace perceptif, celle de la scne parce que son
voyeur est dans limpossibilit de la circonvenir. Mta-gomtrie dun
ct, dfaut de mobilit de lautre. Ironie l, ici humour ?
34. La poupe dmontable a des charnires de montage quil faudra masquer : Cette jointure [de la jambe gauche] avec la cuisse qui nest pas trs
exacte sera cache par des branches et des feuilles mortes (12 Opration
de lApproximation) ; La jointure au coude, trop visible, sera cache par
le buisson n 4 (13 Opration) ; le fil alimentant la lampe lectrique
faisant office de manchon gaz est cacher sous le bras (ibid.). La
mche de cheveux, fixe la tte par une pingle linge, et qui tombe sur
la gorge, permet de camoufler la jointure du cou. Ce nest pas seulement
le cadrage, mais les accessoires du dcor qui doivent effacer le caractre
dmontable et montable du nu. Que la femme du haut du Verre ft en
pices dtaches, sa facture nen faisait pas mystre.
35. Le mannequin dpos : Le nu est creux. Une pine dorsale constitue
son armature cache lintrieur. Il repose sur sa table par trois points
dimpacts (comme le Jongleur de gravit : voir DDS, 46 ; comme la
Broyeuse de chocolat ?) et par un volet mobile dont il est dit : Quand il
[le nu] est en place, relever le volet charnire qui soutient la barre (pine
dorsale) sans trop enfoncer (11 Opration). Le moulage lger ainsi suspendu, comme lest la marie, doit pourtant produire sur lil un effet
denfoncement dans les buissons (10 Opration) ; ceux-ci paratront lenvelopper ; certains seront mme fixs ses flancs au lieu de ltre la table.
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33. Hinges bearing on themes, elements, and materials, the disabled nude: The
3-dim nude of Given is incomplete: the head is formed of two smooth
shells; the right upper arm, the ankle, and the right foot, the left foot are
missing. However, the same object appears complete to the eye of the
voyeur, the absent parts being hidden. The Bride, for her part, is incomplete: genital apparatus and breasts. But the two incompletenesses are
not congruent: the one is masked by the dead angles of the framing and
the screens of the decor; the other proceeds from a perfectly visible plane
deconstruction. The two women are disabled, and both by projection,
but the woman of the Glass because her 4-dim model is untranslatable in
perceptual space, the stage-woman because its impossible for her voyeur
to get around her. Metageometry on the one side, lack of mobility on the
other. Irony there, humor here?
34. The collapsible doll has assembly hinges that must be masked: This
joint [of the left leg] with the hip which is not very precise will be hidden
by branches and dead leaves (12th Operation of the Approximation); The
joint to the elbow, being too visible, will be hidden by the bush no. 4
(13th Operation); the wire supplying power to the electric lamp that serves
as a gas mantle is to be hidden under the arm (ibid.). The hank of hair,
fixed to the head by a clothes peg and falling over the breast, allows the
joint of the neck to be concealed. Its not only the framing but the accessories of the decor that must efface the fact that the nude can be dismantled and reassembled. If the woman in the top of the Glass was in separate
parts, her construction didnt make a mystery about it.
35. The dumped dummy: The nude is hollow. A dorsal spine constitutes its
hidden armature on the inside. It rests on its table at three points of impact
(like the Juggler of Gravity: see DDS, 46; like the Chocolate-grinder?) and a
movable panel of which it is said: When it [the nude] is in place, raise the
panel hinge which holds up the bar (dorsal spine) without thrusting too
much (11th Operation). The light molding, being thus suspended as is the
Bride, must, however, produce on the eye an effect of being thrust into the
bushes (10th Operation). These bushes will appear to envelope her; some
of them will even be fixed to her sides instead of being fixed to the table.
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36. Lobscnit : Le Pendu et la Voie lacte sont ariens, la mobilit est

leur origine et leur destination. Le nu est cras dans les buissons. Aprs
avoir dcrit les deux dsirs htrognes qui contribuent lpanouissement, Duchamp note dans la Bote Verte : Le dernier tat de cette
marie [nue, biff] nu avant la jouissance qui la [fait dchoir, biff]
ferait dchoir (fera dchoir) (DDS, 64). La femme jouit, donc elle est
tombe dans lespace 3 dim clibataire, et cest cela, sa nudit. Ou : si elle
est visible dans cet espace, ce ne peut tre que nue, et il faut alors croire
quelle jouit.
La vulve quon ne peut manquer de remarquer, on ne voit que a, est
dpouille de toute fourrure (alors que les aisselles sont garnies, ce nest
pas une enfant), les cuisses sont carteles, les grandes lvres en rection
sont ouvertes, elles laissent apercevoir non seulement les petites lvres
tumescentes, mais lorifice bant du vagin et mme les bulbes vestibulaires gonfls, autour de la commissure infrieure. La vulve lve la vue ?
ou : la vulve lve la vue ? Un repentir de Duchamp nous attire dans ce
dernier sens : 15 Opration : Rglage gnral : () les cheveux (changer
en blond sale) (Approximation), alors que les photos du premier montage offrent une brillante chevelure chtain.
37. La vitesse : Enfin, cest un nu vite . propos de Le Roi et la Reine
entours de nus vites, Duchamp dit : Le titre le roi et la reine tait une
fois de plus emprunt aux checs, mais les joueurs de 1911 (mes deux
frres) ont t limins et remplacs par les pices dchecs (roi et reine).
Les nus vites sont une envole imaginative introduite pour satisfaire ma
proccupation de mouvement toujours prsente dans le tableau (DDS,
223). Ici il ne reste que la reine, qui est faite mat (ou mate ?) dun coup
sur lchiquier de lino. Vite , cest instantan. Dure plastique, temps
en espace (DDS, 109). Linterminable striptease de la marie dpense un
infini de temps dans les yeux et la tte de ses regardeurs ; le dshabillage
dtermine un dlai. La nudit est au contraire ponctuelle, un clair juste
aprs quelque chose et juste avant quelque chose.

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36. Obscenity: The Pendu femelle and the Milky Way are aerial. Mobility is
their origin and their destination. The nude is crushed in the bushes.
After having described the two heterogeneous desires that contribute to
the blossoming, Duchamp notes in the Green Box: The last state of this
[naked, scratched out] Bride laid bare before the pleasure which [makes
her fall, scratched out] would make her fall (will make her fall) (DDS, 64).
The woman enjoys, so she has fallen into the 3-dim Bachelor space, and
thats what her nudity is. Or, if she is visible in this space, it can only be as
naked, and then we must believe she takes pleasure.
The vulva that you cant fail to notice its all you see is denuded of
all hair (whereas the armpits are hairy this isnt a child); the thighs are
spread apart; the erect large labia are open. They let us see not only the
tumescent small labia but also the gaping orifice of the vagina and even
the swollen vestibulary bulbs around the lower commissure. The vulva
looks up? Or, the vulva-full looks up? [La vulve lve la vue? ou: la vulve lve
la vue?] A second thought of Duchamp attracts us in the direction of the
second: 15th Operation: General adjustmentthe hair (change to dirty
blond) (Approximation), while the photos of the first assembly show a brilliant mane of chestnut hair.
37. Speed: In a word, its a swift nude. A propos of The King and the Queen
Surrounded by Swift Nudes, Duchamp says: The title the king and the
queen was borrowed once again from chess, but the players of 1911 (my
two brothers) have been eliminated and replaced by chess pieces (king
and queen). The swift nudes are a flight of fancy introduced to satisfy my
preoccupation with movement, a preoccupation that was still present in
the picture (DDS, 223). Here there remains only the queen, who is mated
(or checked)10 at a stroke on the lino chessboard. Swift, that is, instantaneous, a snapshot [instantan]. Plastic duration, time in space (DDS, 109).
The interminable striptease of the Bride expends an infinity of time in
the eyes and the head of her viewers; the undressing determines a delay.
The nudity is, on the contrary, punctual, a flash just after something and
just before something.

10

faite mat (ou mate?) [translators note].

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38. Suite des charnires portant sur thmes, etc., les buissons : Fourrure
pubienne dplace ? Abominables fourrures abdominales ? Ou bien :
lcole buissonnire ? Ou bien : retour du Buisson (1910-1911), allgorie de
deux femmes, nues, lune agenouille, impubre, lautre matrone debout
chaperonnant la premire, les deux surs ? buisson ardent allgorique du
passage de la vierge la marie ? Du Buisson date limportance nouvelle
donne au titre : couleur invisible ajoute au tableau (DDS, 220). Ou
les buissons de linvisible paysage hivernal de la Marie, ses rameaux
givrs (DDS, 64), signalant la froideur oppose par la femme (mais les
feuillages du paysage sont de grand t) ? Ou simplement, les buissons
sont des cache-jointures et des verrouilleurs de vue sur vulve ? Ou encore :
ils aggravent le glabre de la motte ? Ou : tout cela la fois. Ou : un peu de
cela. Charnire dmultiplier plus savamment. En tout cas les buissons
lancent maints rcits.
39. Suite : Le paysage proviendrait, pour son dessin, de La lune du 21 aot
1953 (DHarnoncourt et Hopps). Mais lApproximation prvoit un effet de
soleil sur le paysage. Pour sa matire il drive du Verre : il contient du chocolat (et de la poudre de talc : chocolat au lait). Dans les Notes des Botes,
le chocolat est lobjet sur lequel est thmatise la diffrence entre apparence
et apparition, notamment chromatique (voir ici 43). En ce sens le chocolat est au moins la couleur autonome par excellence, qui ne doit sa teinte
(invisible) qu elle-mme. Dans tant donns, il cesse dtre un thme
pour illustrer le problme de lapparition, sa matire seule est cite ,
encore est-ce trs allusivement. Et le paysage qui fait citation est plac sous
clairage artificiel et rduit ntre quapparence. Celle-ci se substitue
lapparition comme la matire au chromatisme, et comme lespace des
tendues sensibles celui des spculations machiniques.
40. Suite : La chute deau na pas t excute sur le Verre, et cela par
stratgie asctique : Je ne me souciais pas de la reprsenter, pour viter de tomber dans le pige du paysagisme (DDS, 225). Elle est une
pice minente dtant donns, difie selon la mthode des machines de
music-hall et des publicits lumineuses : peinte sur verre, elle est claire
par transparence par une lampe dont la lumire est diffracte par un voile
de plastique ; limpression de ruissellement est donne par la rotation
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38. Hinges bearing on themes, etc., continued, the bushes: Displaced pubic hair?
Abominable abdominal hair? Or else: playing truant [in French, lcole
buissonnire, suggesting bushes]? Or else: return of the Buisson (19101911), allegory of two women, naked, one on her knees, under the age of
puberty, the other a matron, standing up, chaperoning the first one, the
two of them sisters? A burning bush that is allegorical of the passage
from virgin to bride? From the Buisson dates the new importance given
to the title: invisible color added to the picture (DDS, 220). Or the bushes
of the invisible winter landscape of the Bride, its frosted branches
(DDS, 64) signaling the cold opposed by the woman (but the foliage of
the landscape is of high summer)? Or simply, the bushes are to conceal
the joints and to screw our vision onto the vulva? Or again: they aggravate the hairlessness of the cunt? Or: all of that at once. Or: a little of
that. Hinge to be demultiplied more knowingly. In any case the bushes
launch many tales.
39. Continued: The landscape appears to derive its design from The Moon
of 21 August 1953 (DHarnoncourt and Hopps). But the Approximation provides for an effect of sun on landscape. For its material it derives from
the Glass: it contains chocolate (and talcum powder: milk chocolate). In
the Notes of the Boxes, chocolate is the object on which the difference
between appearance and apparition is thematized, notably the chromatic
difference (see section 43, following). In this sense chocolate is at least
the autonomous color par excellence, which owes its (invisible) tint only
to itself. In Given, it ceases to be a theme for illustrating the problem of
apparition. Its matter alone is cited, and even then very allusively. And
the landscape that does the quoting is placed under artificial light and
reduced to being merely appearance. This appearance is substituted for
apparition as matter is for chromatism and as the space of sensory areas is
for that of machinic speculations.
40. Continued: The waterfall was not executed on the Glass, and that was
by way of ascetic strategy: I didnt bother to represent it, so as to avoid
falling into the trap of landscapism (DDS, 225). It is a prominent part of
Given, constructed according to the method of music-hall machines and
illuminated advertising signs. Painted on glass, it is lit from behind by
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dun cercle daluminium perc de trous et plac entre la lampe et le verso

du support en verre. Aperue dans un bar dun village californien, une
publicit des bires Coors vantait la fracheur de ses eaux de brassage en
montrant une cascade anime selon le mme principe ; lobjet paraissait
ancien. Duchamp fait allusion aux rclames lumineuses (DDS, 101),
mais cest pour illustrer lide dapparition. Il se reprend ensuite, pourtant, et en effet elles sont des exemples, tout comme la chute deau, de
machines dapparence. Deux remarques : 1 le disque fait allusion aux
machines optiques, en particulier la rotative demi-sphre et aux rotoreliefs : mais elles taient des paradoxes optiques, alors que le montage
de la chute deau est un truquage visuel. 2 La chute deau est une force,
dans le Verre, et elle na pas t davantage reprsente quaucune des autres
sources dnergie que les rcits de production appliquent aux machines
du haut et du bas. tant donns la fait passer ltat de figure anime
visible, tandis que toute trace de lnergie qui lanime et lillumine et qui
est la seule employe dans cette uvre, llectricit, est efface sur la scne.
Charnire redouble qui par deux fois rabat les apparences par-dessus les
apparitions, et nous plonge dans le plus spectaculaire des sens.
41. Suite : Le ciel de la dernire uvre est une plaque de verre comme
celui de la Voie lacte. Mais cette plaque est une face dune bote hermtiquement close dont la face postrieure est un carton bleu et qui contient
une lampe fluorescente et des nuages en coton hydrophile (placs ad
libitum par le monteur contre la paroi de verre ou sur le fond de carton).
Le bleu de ce ciel est donc une couleur dapparence dont la lumire est
fournie par une source artificielle et la teinte obtenue par un rflecteur.
Et cette teinte est ce mme bleu que les Notes du Verre recommandaient
d viter [] dans les mlanges cause de sa tendance atmosphrique
imbcile (DDS, 113). Quant louate des nuages, cest encore une allusion : aux cylindres-seins, devenus Voie lacte, que Duchamp aurait un
temps song fabriquer avec, sinon du coton, du moins du savon barbe
(DDS, 108). Mais ici aussi lapparence clipse lapparition.
42. Charnires portant sur lumires, couleurs, matires : Le gaz, matire
des rcits du Verre, est ici reprsent en nergie lumineuse ; le bec Auer
est mme le seul clairage dont la source soit visible des trous du voyeur.
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a lamp whose light is diffracted by a plastic veil; the impression of flowing is given by the rotation of a circle of aluminum punched with holes
and placed between the lamp and the other side of the glass support.
Glimpsed at a bar in a small California town, an advertisement for Coors
beer promoted the coolness of its brewing waters by showing a water
cascade animated according to the same principle; the object seemed
old. Duchamp alludes to luminous advertisements (DDS, 101), but in
order to illustrate the idea of apparition. They are examples, just like the
waterfall, of appearance-machines. Two remarks: 1) The disk alludes to
optical machines, in particular to the rotative demi-sphere and to the
roto-reliefs: but they were optical paradoxes, whereas the assembly of
the waterfall is a visual trick effect. 2) The waterfall is a force, in the Glass,
and it was no more represented than any of the other sources of energy
that the tales of production apply to the top and bottom machines. Given
makes it pass over to the state of a visible animated figure while all trace
of the energy that animates and illuminates it, electricity, is effaced on the
stage a doubled hinge that twice over pulls down appearances over the
apparitions and plunges us into the most spectacular of the senses.
41. Continued: The sky of the last work is a pane of glass like that of the
Milky Way. But this pane is one side of a hermetically sealed box whose
rear side is a piece of blue cardboard that contains a fluorescent lamp and
clouds made of cotton wool (placed ad libitum by the assembler against
the partition of glass or on the cardboard backdrop). The blue of this
sky is thus a color of appearance whose light is supplied by an artificial
source and whose tint is obtained by a reflector. And this tint is that same
blue that the Notes on the Glass recommended to avoid [] in mixtures
because of its imbecile atmospheric tendency (DDS, 113). As for the wadding of the clouds, its another allusion: to the breast cylinders, which
became Milky Way, which Duchamp for a time thought of making, if
not with cotton, at least with shaving soap (DDS, 108). But here, too, the
appearance eclipses the apparition.
42. Hinges bearing on lights, colors, materials: The gas, material for the stories
of the Glass, is here represented as luminous energy; the Auer jet is the
only lighting whose source is visible from the voyeurs holes. Yet it is
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Il nest pourtant quapparence : comme toutes les lumires dtant donns, celle du brleur gaz est lectrique. Llectricit tait fminine dans
les rcits du Verre, et le gaz masculin. Dans les narrations que la scne de
derrire la porte suggre au voyeur, il ne sera pas question dlectricit : les
seules nergies personnifies sont leau et le gaz, comme le titre le dit. Les
instructions de montage ne cessent de dmentir les rcits virtuels provoqus par le spectacle dtant donns, alors que les rcits recueillis dans
les Botes guident le regardeur de la Marie. Se confirme ainsi que la narration passe du ct de la reprsentation, et le texte du ct des machineries.
Mais que cela ne fasse pas oublier ceci : dans ce double passage inverse, la
narration devient virtuelle, et la machinerie invisible.
43. Mmes charnires : La couleur en gnral est ici traite en apparence.
Duchamp nomme ainsi celle quun objet reoit, lapparition chromatique tant au contraire en couleurs natives (DDS, 121), celles qui se
trouvent dans les molcules . vrai dire ces dernires ne sont pas des
couleurs [], se sont des foyers lumineux produisant des couleurs actives
cest--dire une surface chocolat-natif sera compose dune sorte de
phosphorescence chocolat (ibid.). Elles sont des sources lumineuses
colorantes et non pas des diffrenciations dans une lumire uniforme
(lumire du soleil, artificielle, etc. ) (DDS, 117-118). Les proprits de
tels foyers chappent ncessairement aux yeux, qui ne connaissent que les
apparences. Elles ne sont saisissables que par lintelligence : Il y a une certaine inopticit, une certaine considration froide, ce colorant naffectant que
des yeux imaginaires dans cette exposition (DDS, 118). Cest en recourant
au lexique, en se tenant lcart de toute exprience visuelle, quon doit
arriver concevoir des quivalents de ces couleurs actives, lesquelles
ne se voient pas (DDS, 110) : les couleurs dont on parle , je veux
dire, prcise Duchamp, la diffrence qui existe entre le fait de parler dun
rouge et celui de regarder un rouge (DDS, 118). Cest pour cette mme
raison quinversement Duchamp cherche une transcription en couleurs ou en photogrammes de lalphabet, et mme de la grammaire ,
dans lesquels devait tre crite lInscription den haut (DDS, 48, 109111). Cest aussi pourquoi dans les Notes des Botes Verte et Blanche, il
emploie souvent lallemand pour dsigner les tons. Dans lApproximation, les rares notations de couleur sont faites en anglais. Est-ce le signe
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merely appearance: like all the lights of Given, that of the gas burner is
electric. Electricity was feminine in the tales of the Glass, and gas was
masculine. In the narrations that the scene from behind the door suggests
to the voyeur, there will be no question of electricity: the only personified
energies are water and gas, as the title says. The assembly instructions do
not cease to deny the virtual stories provoked by the spectacle of Given;
the tales collected in the Boxes guide the viewer of the Bride. It is thus
confirmed that the narration passes over to the side of representation,
and the text, to the side of the machineries. But let that not make us forget this: In this double inverted passage, narration becomes virtual and
machinery invisible.
43. The same hinges: Color in general is treated here as an appearance. This
is what Duchamp calls the color that an object receives, the chromatic
apparition being on the contrary in native colors (DDS, 121), those
which are found in molecules. To tell the truth, these latter are not
colors they are luminous foci producing the active colors i.e., a nativechocolate surface will be composed of a sort of chocolate phosphorescence (ibid.). They are colorant light sources and not differentiations
in a uniform light (sunlight, artificial light, etc.) (DDS, 117-118). The
properties of such foci necessarily escape the eyes, which know only
appearances. They are graspable only by the intelligence: There is a
certain inopticity, a certain cold consideration, this colorant affecting only imaginary eyes in this exposure (DDS, 118). Its in having recourse to the lexical,
in keeping away from any visual experience, that one must manage to
conceive equivalents of these active colors, which are not seen (DDS,
110): the colors of which one speaks. I mean, explains Duchamp, the
difference which exists between the fact of speaking of a red and that
of looking at a red (DDS, 118). Its for this same reason that conversely
Duchamp looks for a transcription of the alphabet and even of grammar into colors or into photograms, in which the Inscription from the
upper region must be written (DDS, 48, 109-111). Its also why in the Notes
of the Green and the White boxes he often uses German to designate
the shades. In the Approximation, the rare notations of color are made in
English. Is it the sign of a persistent interest in the chromatic apparition?
For the use of the machinest-electrician perhaps, certainly not intended
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dun intrt persistant pour lapparition chromatique ? lintention du

machiniste-lectricien peut-tre, srement pas destination du voyeur,
vou aux lumires uniformes et artificielles, aux tons locaux qui captivent
lil, aux chromatismes les plus connots : toutes les apparences.
44. Mme charnires : Les couleurs particulires sur la scne dtant donns sont, outre le bleu du ciel, le rose et le vert comme dans les anaglyphes. La page 20 de lApproximation porte le schma du montage lectrique densemble. Le vert clibataire : Bec Auer : verre de lampe rond,
lintrieur : un manchon de bec de gaz et dans le manchon une petite
ampoule lectrique, peinte en vert pour donner lillusion de la lumire du
gaz. Le rose de la marie : au-dessus du nu, trois fluorescents : 1 une
daylight trs blanche, 2 a pinkish daylight named 4500 white, 3 idem ;
chacune de 40 watts. Dans la Bote Blanche (DDS, 116), la marie dj
(mais cest peut-tre encore la marie du Passage de la vierge la marie de
1911) a pour couleur leitmotiv le rose ( obtenu par Blanc dargent et
Lichtocker Gebr ) ; au contraire les clibataires sont vous au fonc ,
dans lequel entre toujours le bleu de Prusse, parfois le vert. On ne peut
pourtant pas dire que le registre chromatique soit conserv dans tant
donns ; seules le sont les appellations des couleurs correspondant aux
deux ples ; pour lil du voyeur, la scne du nu brille de tous ses feux
blanc-rose. Le corps blme tomb dans le bti 3 dim des mles linonde
paradoxalement du blason de ses teintes. Et la couleur porte par les
clibataires, loin dirradier leur espace, nest quun piteux halo. Donc en
matire de tons, la charnire entre les deux uvres 1 maintient nominalement les blasons respectifs des deux parties ; 2 fait passer la dominante
du haut du Verre dans lespace dtant donns qui est lanalogue de celui
du bas ; 3 clipse la dominante de ce dernier. Le voyeur na dyeux que
pour les couleurs de la femme ; les siennes sont exclues de son champ.
45. Mmes charnires : Les clairages proviennent de deux sortes de sources :
spots et fluorescents. Les uns et les autres peuvent tre attnus par diffraction dans des crans transparents ou renforcs par des rflecteurs. Les
rayons de la lampe fluorescente qui claire la chute deau par transparence sont encore tamiss par un film de plastique (15 Opration).
Tout le fond de scne est soumis une lumire claire, mais douce ( cool
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for the voyeur, who is doomed to uniform and artificial lights, to local
shades that captivate the eye, to the most connoted chromatisms: to all
appearances.
44. The same hinges: The particular colors on the stage of Given are, besides
the blue of the sky, pink and green as in the anaglyphs. Page 20 of the
Approximation bears the outline of the overall electrical assembly. The
Bachelor green: Auer jet: a round lamp-glass, inside: a gas-jet mantle
and in the mantle a small electric bulb, painted green to give the illusion of gaslight. The pink of the Bride: Above the nude, three fluorescent lights: 1) a very white daylight*, 2) a pinkish daylight named 4,500
white,* 3) the same; each one of 40 watts. In the White Box (DDS, 116),
the Bride already (but its perhaps still the bride of the Passage from Virgin
to Bride of 1911) has pink as her leitmotiv (obtained by Silver White
and Lichtocker Gebr) [light burnt ochre]; by contrast the Bachelors
are doomed to the dark, into which Prussian blue always enters, and
sometimes green. And yet one cannot say that the chromatic register is
preserved in Given; the only things that are preserved are the appellations
of the colors corresponding to the two poles; for the eye of the voyeur,
the scene of the nude shines white-pink with all its lights. The pale fallen
body in the 3-dim frame of the males inundates it paradoxically with the
blazon of its tints. And the color worn by the Bachelors, far from irradiating their space, is only a pitiful halo. Thus in terms of shades, the hinge
between the two works 1) nominally maintains the respective blazons
of the two parts; 2) makes the dominant color from the top region of the
Glass pass into the space of Given, which is the analogue of the space of
the lower region of the Glass; and 3) eclipses the dominant color of the
latter. The voyeur has eyes only for the colors of the woman; his own are
excluded from his field.
45. Same hinges: The lighting comes from two sorts of sources: spotlights
and fluorescent lights. Both can be attenuated by diffraction through
transparent screens or reinforced by reflectors. The rays of the fluorescent
lamp that light up the transparent waterfall are yet further softened by a
film of plastic (15th Operation). The whole background of the scene is
subjected to a cool white* light. At the height of the navel of the nude,
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| Charnires

white ). hauteur du nombril du nu, lclairage se fait plus que brutal,

agressif : trois fluorescents de 40 W chacun, trois Century lights de
150 W chacune, enfin une spotlight de 150 W nantie dun rflecteur
daluminium, si intense quun verre transparent plac au-dessous vient
protger le nu de la chaleur . Cette dernire lampe, note Duchamp sur
le schma de montage (Approximation, 20) doit tomber verticalement,
exactement, sur le con . Une shade en plastique blanc sera en outre
monte part du btis gnral, qui sert enfermer les lumires et les
rflecter avec plus dintensit sur lensemble (15 Opration). Et pour
renforcer la clart de la scne, lantichambre place entre la porte et le
mur brch est tendue de velours noir sur quatre de ses six faces (6
Opration). Tout le systme dclairage est donc fait pour semparer des
yeux du voyeur et les conduire sans dlai leur point focal suppos, la
vulve. Dans la Marie, Duchamp est la recherche dune lectricit
en large et dun retard en verre ; ici il dclenche un flash, un punctum
electricum, qui donne linstantan dune scne en dur .
46. Mmes charnires : Il faudrait examiner encore comment les matriaux sont transfrs du Verre tant donns Distinguer les matriaux constitutifs du Verre et ceux des ateliers, des pices et des matires
premires dont parlent les rcits des Botes, et pour lesquels Duchamp
cherche tablir un systme de traduction chromatique (du type :
Aciers Blanc, jaune, noir, ocre) (fond sombre) (). Aluminium Blanc,
bleu de Prusse, jaune, ocre (DDS, 114). De mme dans tant donns..,
distinguer les matriaux de construction et les matriaux sur scne. On
trouverait probablement le mme oprateur que prcdemment entre les
deux groupes : les matriaux constitutifs sont cachs dans la dernire
uvre alors que le Verre les exhibe, ceux qui sont associs aux rcits de
production sont mdiatiss par les techniques d apparition dans le
Verre, ceux qui donnent lieu aux fantaisies narratives du voyeur du nu
sont maquills aux fins d apparence .
47. Le volume du bti devrait aussi tre tudi en charnire avec le plan du
Verre. Le primtre du linolum dfinissant la surface de la scne nest pas
rectangulaire, cest un pentagone irrgulier, dont les trois angles obtus
semblent ouvrir un coin o viendra se loger langle de la table du nu.
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| Hinges

the lighting is more than brutal, aggressive: three fluorescents of 40 watts

each, three Century lights* of 150 watts each, finally a spotlight of 150
watts equipped with a reflector of aluminium, so intense that a transparent glass placed above it intervenes to protect the nude from the heat.
This last lamp, notes Duchamp in the assembly schema (Approximation, p.
20) must fall vertically, accurately, on the cunt. A shade made of white
plastic will, in addition, be mounted separately from the general frame,
which serves to enclose the lights and to reflect them with more intensity onto the whole (15th Operation). And to reinforce the brightness
of the scene, the antechamber placed between the door and the brokendown wall is upholstered with black velvet on four of its six sides (6th
Operation). The whole system of lighting is thus made so as to seize hold
of the eyes of the voyeur and lead them without delay to their supposed
focal point, the vulva. In the Glass, Duchamp is in search of an electricity
in breadth and of a retarding in glass; here he fires a flash, a punctum
electricum, which gives the snapshot of a scene in permanence.
46. The same hinges: We would have to examine further how the materials
are transferred from the Glass to Given, and to distinguish the constitutive
materials of the Glass and those of the workshops from the primary parts
and the raw materials of which the tales in the Boxes speak and for which
Duchamp seeks to establish a system of chromatic translation (of the
type: Steels White, yellow, black, ochre, dark background. Aluminium
White, Prussian blue, yellow, ochre) (DDS, 114). The same in Given; distinguish the construction materials and the materials on the stage. One
would probably find the same operator as before between the two groups:
the constitutive materials are hidden in the last work while the Glass
exhibits them, those that are associated with the production stories are
mediated by the techniques of apparition in the Glass, those that give
place to the narrative fantasies of the voyeur of the nude are made up for
purposes of appearance.
47. The volume of the frame should also be studied in hinge with the plane of
the glass. The perimeter of the linoleum defining the surface of the stage is
not rectangular, its an irregular pentagon, whose three obtuse angles seem
to open a corner into which the angle of the nudes table will come to be
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| Charnires

Celui-ci se prsente en biais par rapport laxe du bti (vrifier si les

illetons de la porte ne sont pas eux-mmes percs en biais, dans laxe
o se trouve le sexe, et non dans celui du carrelage). Une partie du corps
dborde donc hors du cube de la scne, comme ctait le cas pour quatre
des Moules mlic, ce que montre la vue en plan de la machine clibataire
(DDS, 61). Il y a ausi le biais de la paroi qui porte le paysage, qui lloigne
de la perpendiculaire laxe gnral, dans lautre sens, vers la droite.
La question charnire serait : quoi de ce biaisage densemble ? en quoi
contribue-t-il lui aussi (avec lclairage, avec le cadre irrgulier, notamment) narrativiser la scne ? Un nu entre dans le champ par la gauche ;
comme la marie du haut du Verre, il inscrit ses commandements muets
dans lespace selon la mme direction que lcriture (?).
48. Solutions : Y a-t-il une mta-ou pata-charnire gnrale entre les
deux uvres ? 1) Rcit : la femme du haut se laisse prendre, elle perd sa
quatrime dimension, elle dchoit, cest lobscnit. 2) Rcit plus machineur : le clibataire croit avoir la femme ouverte dans son viseur, cest lui
le con. 3) Mtarcit dinspiration expressive : le nu du champ, cest mon
corps, et comme dailleurs, ce sont toujours les autres qui meurent ,
ainsi que le dclare mon pitaphe, ma tombe est ncessairement vide, je
ne serai jamais mort, le bti est mon cnotaphe. 4) Mtarcit dinspiration
expressive montable avec le prcdent : dailleurs vous ne me connatrez pas ;
vous mavez cru un ascte, me voici en costume dmancipation. 5)
Spculation : pour baiser lil, on peut le retarder, procdure du Verre ;
on peut aller plus vite que lui, procdure instantane. Mais on est asctique dans les deux cas. 6) Spculation montable avec la prcdente : on
peut aller plus vite que lil, non par asctisme, mais par paganisme.
Cest--dire : Duchamp comprend quen travaillant sur les projections
2-dimensionnelles, seraient-elles dobjets 4-dimensionnels, il ne smancipe nullement de la critique des sens qui est lobsession mtaphysique de
lOccident platonicien et chrtien, il la continue. Sil affirme, avec tant
donns..., la reprsentation-narration dans toute sa force humoristique
(lhumour anaglyphique) ce nest pas pour dnoncer les illusions dans la
Caverne, ni mme lillusion de la Caverne, mais pour dire : cette projection-l nest pas plus mauvaise quune autre, elle aussi bonne, parce quil
ny a que des projections.
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| Hinges

lodged. The nude is presented obliquely in relation to the axis of the frame
(check whether the eyeholes of the door arent themselves pierced obliquely,
in the axis in which the sex is located, and not in that of the tiling). A part of
the body spills over, then, outside the cube of the stage, as was the case for
four of the Malic Molds, as the plane view of the Bachelor Machine shows
(DDS, 61). There is also the oblique of the partition that bears the landscape,
which moves it away from the perpendicular to the general axis, in the
other direction, toward the right. The hinge question would be: what about
this overall obliquing? Wherein does it contribute, it too (along with the
lighting, with the irregular frame) to narrativizing the scene? A nude enters
the field from the left; like the Bride of the top part of the Glass, it inscribes
its mute commands in space according to the same direction as writing (?).
48. Solutions: Is there a general meta- or a pata-hinge between the
two works? 1) Tale: the woman of the upper region lets herself be taken,
she loses her fourth dimension, she falls. This is the obscenity. 2) More
machining tale: the Bachelor thinks hes got the woman open in his vizor,
but hes the cunt. 3) Meta-tale of expressive inspiration: the nude in the field,
its my body, and besides, its always the others who die, just as my
epitaph declares, my tomb is necessarily empty, I shall never be dead,
the frame is my cenotaph. 4) Meta-tale of expressive inspiration that can be
assembled together with the preceding one: besides, you will not know me;
you thought me an ascetic, and here I am dressed up as Emancipation.
5) Speculation: in order to kiss/fuck [baiser] the eye, you can delay it, the
procedure of the Glass; you can go faster than it, snapshot procedure.
But you are ascetic in both cases. 6) Speculation that can be assembled with
the preceding one: you can go faster than the eye, not through asceticism,
but through paganism. That is: Duchamp understands that in working on the 2-dimensional projections, even of 4-dimensional objects, he
does not at all emancipate himself from the critique of the senses that
is the metaphysical obsession of the Platonic and Christian West he
continues it. If with Given, he affirms representation-narration in all
its humoristic force (anaglyphic humor), it is not in order to denounce
the illusions in the Cave, nor even the illusion of the Cave, but in order
to say: that projection is not worse than another one, it is just as good,
because there are only projections.
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| Charnires

Toute mise en perspective, y compris celle de notre optique la plus trivialement massmdiatique, est limposition dun ordre des faits divers,
et lintressant est que cet ordre na pas de raison. La charnire que fait
le point du voyeur avec lespace 3-dimensionnel vaut bien les charnires
mta-gomtriques, puisquil ny a que des charnires. Non pas donc le
paganisme difiant qui aura raison de Rome sous le nom de catholicisme, mais celui des jeux scniques, que le premier a dtruit et qui se
consacrait simuler les mtamorphoses des divinits innombrables. Non
Platon, mais Ovide et Apule. Non Kant, mais le dernier Nietzsche. 7)
Ironisme : Donner toujours ou presque le pourquoi du choix entre 2 ou
plusieurs solutions (par causalit ironique) (DDS, 46). Laquelle donc
de ces hypothses sur la mtacharnire, et pourquoi ? Aucune delles, une
autre, beaucoup ensemble, presque. 8) Objection 6 et rponse : comment distinguer la narration reprsentation humoristique de la crdule,
et comment dcider de celle que Duchamp nous lgue ? Grce ceci que
son artificialisme en appellerait la puissance de dtecter partout dans les
ralits la mise en perspective qui les forme, ncessaire et contingente.
Et den inventer dautres. 9) Compendium : on peut dire tout cela ex tempore. Soit la mise nu : avant elle, le corps est cach au regard ; aprs elle,
il lui est expos. Elle est linstant de la transformation ou mtamorphose
de cet avant en cet aprs. Elle nest saisissable que comme cette limite.
Donc deux solutions . Celle du Verre, o le regard vient toujours trop
tt, parce que lvnement est en retard , le corpus restant dpouiller
sans fin. Avec celle dtant donns, cest le regard qui arrive trop tard,
la mise nu est faite, reste la nudit. Maintenant fait charnire entre pas
encore et dj plus. Cela sentend de tout vnement, rotique, artistique, politique. Et ne donne pas lieu mystique.
Septembre 1976

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| Hinges

Any putting into perspective, including that of our most trivially massmedia optic, is the imposition of an order based on faits divers; the interesting thing is that this order has no reason or principle. The hinge made
by the point-of-voyeur with 3-dimensional space is worth as much as
the meta-geometric hinges, for there are only hinges. Not the edifying
paganism, then, that will win out over Rome under the name of catholicism, but that of theatrical games, which the former kind destroyed and
that were devoted to simulating the metamorphoses of the innumerable divinities. Not Plato, but Ovid and Apuleius. Not Kant, but the
later Nietzsche. 7) Ironism: Give always or almost the why of the choice
between 2 or several solutions (by ironic causality) (DDS, 46). Which
one, then, of these hypotheses about the meta-hinge, and why? Neither
of them, a different one, many together, almost. 8) Objection to 6 and reply:
how can you distinguish between humoristic narration-representation
and credulous narration, and how can you decide about the one that
Duchamp bequeaths to us? Thanks to this, that his artificialism appeals
to the power to detect everywhere in realities the putting into perspective that forms them, a putting into perspective that is both necessary
and contingent. And to invent others. 9) Compendium: you can say all that
ex tempore. That is, the laying bare: before it, the body is hidden from the
gaze; after it, it is exposed to it. It is the instant of transformation or metamorphosis of this before into this after. It is graspable only as this limit.
So: two solutions. That of the Glass, where the gaze comes always too
soon, because the event is late, the corpus remaining to be stripped without end. With that of Given, its the gaze that arrives too late, the laying
bare is finished, there remains the nudity. Now makes a hinge between
not yet and no longer. That goes without saying for any event, erotic,
artistic, political. And does not give place to mysticism.
September 1976

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Table de matires

Incongruences
Duchamp as a transformer
Parois
Machinations
Charnires

En gnral

Le Verre

Le dernier nu

les transformateurs duchamp

48
70
76
96
138
144
148
170

209

table of contents

Incongruences

49

Duchamp as a transformer

71

Partitions

77

Machinations
Hinges

97
139

In general

145

The Glass

149

The last nude

171

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| Illustrations

Le gaz dclairage et la chute deau /

The Illuminating Gas and the Waterfall
50 31 cm, 1948-1949, Stockholm, Moderna Museet

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| Illustrations

La fentre de Drer /
Drers Window
1514, J. Baltrusaitis, Anamorphoses, Paris, Perrin, 1969

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| Illustrations

Costruzione legittima daprs /

after Leonardo da Vinci
J. Baltrusaitis, Anamorphoses, Paris, Perrin, 1969

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| Illustrations

Schmas anamorphiques de Nicron /

Anamorphic schedules of Nicron
J. Baltrusaitis, Anamorphoses, Paris, Perrin, 1969

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| Illustrations

Cols alits / Bedridden Mountains

32 24.5 cm, 1959, Paris, Collection Jean-Jacques Lebel

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| Illustrations

Fac-simil dune note de la Bote Blanche /

Facsimile of a note from the White Box
1967

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| Illustrations

Jean- Suquet, Schma du fonctionnement des machines du Grand Verre/

Schedule of the working of the Large Glass machines
1974

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| Illustrations

Plan de lAppareil clibataire (1914). Note de la Bote verte /

Plan of the Celibate Machine (1914). Note from the Green Box
1934

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| Illustrations

Elvation de lAppareil clibataire. Note de la Bote verte /

Rising of the Celibate Machine. Note from the Green Box
1934

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| Illustrations

Etant donns: 1 la chute deau, 2 le gaz dclairage /

Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The illuminating Gas,
Vue extrieure: la porte / Exterior View: The Gate
1946-1966, Philadelphia Museum of Art

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| Illustrations

tant donns: 1 la chute deau, 2 le gaz dclairage /

Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas
Assemblage/mixed-media, 242.5 177.8 124.5 cm, 1946-1966, Philadelphia Museum of Art

222

| Postface

Postface
Dalia Judovitz
Son usage du temps constitue le meilleur de son uvre.
J.-P. Roch
Je sensque quelque chose de mon nom est crit dans ma vie: trop tard.
Et ainsi je me suis mis tard lcriture
J.-F. Lyotard
Comment le lecteur doit-il comprendre Les Transformateurs Duchamp (1977)1 de
Lyotard et son hritage pluriel ? Si cette question se pose aujourdhui et avec
quelque urgence, ce nest pas simplement que les textes de Lyotard sur lart sont
enfin rassembls et quils se voient donc octroys, ou plutt restitus, accs et reconnaissance publiques. Considr comme un exemple dapproche philosophique
de lart de Duchamp, limpact de ce travail a t largement limit aux historiens
de lart intresss par la thorie. Lattention critique sest porte avant tout sur
lanalyse que Lyotard fait des implications phnomnologiques dtant donns: 1 la
chute deau, 2 le gaz dclairage de Duchamp (1946-1966; sa dernire uvre et son testament), et, plus particulirement, sur la corporalisation de la vision, produite par
lalignement et lultime convergence des points de vue et de fuite.2 En dpit de la
rcurrence des crits de Lyotard sur lart et lesthtique, commencer par son volume inaugural intitul Discours, figure (1971), les philosophes ont ignor en grande
partie son travail sur Duchamp quils considrent comme une simple incursion de
la philosophie dans lart. Confins lesthtique, Les Transformateurs Duchamp et les
crits ultrieurs de Lyotard sur lart ont t mis en marge du soi-disant cadre plus
gnral de ses questions et rflexions philosophiques.3

1
2

Dans la suite, les dates entre parenthses renvoient ldition franaise des livres de Lyotard et du
texte, les numros entre parenthses renvoient aux pages de ldition franaise dans ce volume.
Comme exemple notoire de cette approche, nous renvoyons le lecteur au livre de Rosalind E.
Krauss, The Optical Unconscious, Cambridge and London, MIT University Press, 1994, traduit en
franais par Michle Veubret: LInconscient optique, Paris, Au mme titre, 2001. Ltude plus rcente de Michael R. Taylor, Marcel Duchamp: tant donns, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum
of Art, 2009, offre une documentation exhaustive et invite de nouvelles approches critiques
dtant donnsde Duchamp.
La plupart des numros spciaux et recueils dessais critiques consacrs Lyotard se sont centrs
sur ses crits philosophiques, ne se rfrant que sporadiquement ses crits sur lart. Voir LArc
(1976), Diacritics (1984), Les Cahiers de philosophie (1988), LEsprit crateur (1991), Philosophy Today (1992)
et Parallax (2001). Quelques exceptions notables incluent Geoffrey Bennington, Lyotard: Writing the
Event, New York, Columbia University Press, 1988, Bill Readings, Introducing Lyotard: Art and Politics,
London, Routledge, 1991, et Simon Malpas, Jean-Franois Lyotard, London and NY, Routledge, 2003.

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| Postface

Cette omission qui quivaut un rejet de la question philosophique et de

limportance des Transformateurs Duchamp se justifie-t-elle? Qui plus est, peut-elle
tre corrobore par lapproche adopte par Lyotard dans son effort de reformuler la
nature de la pense et de lexpression philosophiques? Les ritrations ultrieures
des ides abordes dans cet essai savoir, son engagement dans lart pour rinventer la pense et lexpression philosophiques et, en effet, le tournant que son
uvre plus tardive prendra vers la littrature, notamment partir des annes 90,
nous forcent conclure autrement.4 Cette tentative de relguer ces questions artistiques lesthtique, les sparant du domaine de la philosophie proprement parler, est non seulement mise en question par Lyotard, mais devient, je le crois, lune
des problmatiques centrales de son entreprise philosophique. Cette ide apparat
sur lavant-scne de ses crits postrieurs, en particulier durant la dernire dcennie de sa vie, alors quil pose le postulat du potentiel philosophique de lart et
de la littrature comme un dfi ouvert la philosophie et aux praticiens de cette
discipline. Il avance la proposition audacieuse, peut-tre mme scandaleuse, que
certains philosophes, crivains ou artistes pourraient revendiquer dtre plus philosophes que les matres lgitimes de linstitution de la philosophie au sens large:
Wittgenstein, Gertrude Stein, Joyce ou Duchamp paraissent de meilleures ttes philosophiques en regard de Nietzsche ou Heidegger je veux dire par meilleures: plus aptes
prendre en compte le nant sans issue dont lOccident accouche en ce premier quart du XXe
sicle; et par philosophiques, jentends: sil est vrai que philosopher est affaire de style
[]. Une affaire de style, je crois bien que cest par elle que la philosophie est aujourdhui
agite, menace, la fois tente et souponne.5

Lyotard renouvellerait-il ici cette vieille rivalit entre philosophie et littrature

que Platon inaugura dans sa Rpublique par son exclusion exemplaire de la littrature, cette chienne hargneuse qui aboie contre son matre (Rpublique, 607b)?
4

Les crits de la dernire dcennie de sa vie commencer par Sign Malraux (1996), La Chambre
sourde: LAntisthetique de Malraux (1998), La Confession dAugustin (2000) et le volume posthume
Misre de la philosophie (2000) attestent son effort soutenu pour sengager dans la littrature,
dans les questions de style, et daffect, tout en essayant dapprendre la philosophie tendre une
oreille au littraire.
Jean-Franois Lyotard, Moralits postmodernes, Paris, Galile, 1993, 29-30. Le passage en question
est extrait du chapitre 2, intitul Zone. Commentant ce passage, Anne Tomiche note que le
canon littraire de Lyotard fait rfrence des crivains qui sont davantage intresss dans le
comment de la reprsentation que dans le quoi du reprsent, questionnant par l la possibilit
mme de la reprsentation (voir son Lyotard and/on Literature dans Yale French Studies, 99 et
Jean-Franois Lyotard: Time and Judgment dit par R. Harvey et L. R. Schehr, Yale University Press,
2001, 150). Ma traduction.

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| Postface

Son recours au potentiel philosophique de la littrature et de lart se rduit-il un

simple artifice rhtorique ? Ou doit-on le prendre au srieux et accepter la possibilit quil mette en question ldifice mme de la philosophie et les modalits
critiques de la pense? Interrogeant la distinction obligatoire entre philosophie
et littrature, comprise comme une opposition entre un art de la pense et un art
de la reprsentation, Lyotard questionne la rduction de lobjet de la philosophie
une pense qui prtendrait pouvoir se distinguer et sextirper de considrations
stylistiques. Dans un mouvement radical, il affirme au contraire que cest lautorit
et la comprhension philosophiques de la pense elle-mme qui sont mises ici en
jeu et qui sont mues par la question du style. Contestant la primaut de la pense
sur lexpression, il suggrera dans ses crits que la manire de lexpression ou style
nest pas accessoire la pense puisquelle est ncessaire son avnement et son
dploiement comme vnement.
Le rle central que joue pour Lyotard lexpression comme condition de possibilit de la pense nest pas tonnant vu son lignage philosophique qui remonte
Maurice Merleau-Ponty et Mikel Dufrenne. Chez ces deux penseurs, le
moment phnomnologique aboutit aux efforts de repenser les implications philosophiques de la nature du fait artistique. Cette perspective post-humaniste a
t alimente par des avances en linguistique et en psychanalyse, et a pouss
redfinir la nature et le rle de lart en permettant lmergence de nouvelles possibilits de figuration de la pense. Cependant, ce tournant de la philosophie vers
lart ne doit pas tre mal compris ou rduit une simple approche philosophique
de la littrature et de lart, ou, dans un sens plus tendancieux encore, quon se suffise dadopter un style potique ou artistique. Lyotard nous met en garde dans ses
crits ultrieurs: Cette dette de style, le philosophe ne peut pas sen acquitter
en faisant de lesthtique.6 Plutt que de se fonder sur une dfinition conventionnelle du style comme mode dexpression qui serait instrument ou ornement
de la pense, Lyotard (sinspirant de Merleau-Ponty) voit dans le style un geste signifiant et immanent au discours. Il invite un examen plus approfondi de la nature
de lcriture philosophique, conue comme une performance dont le caractre
gestuel et matriel saperait radicalement lide et les conventions de la pense
philosophique. Les rflexions de Lyotard propos de lexpression sont symptomatiques de lmergence dune question philosophique concernant la pense dont
larticulation rsiste et remet en cause les rgimes conventionnels du discours
philosophique. Dans mon propos, je vais considrer Les Transformateurs Duchamp
comme un portail qui ouvre sur luvre de Duchamp tout en introduisant la
6

Moralits postmodernes, 30.

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| Postface

question de lavnement et de lvnement de lart, laquelle exige une redfinition de la pense elle-mme. Toutefois, puisquils invitent considrer la pense
comme une uvre dart, Les Transformateurs Duchamp donnent aussi un aperu sur
le projet philosophique plus gnral de Lyotard, inscrivant la trajectoire passe
et future de ses crits dans les limites de ce cadre. Je me pencherai sur plusieurs
questions fondamentales qui sont autant de charnires (un terme que Lyotard
reprend Duchamp) qui facilitent les articulations conceptuelles et le mouvement de sa pense quant Duchamp, et clairent son entreprise philosophique
alors quelle se meut travers les multiples itrations entre ses uvres passes
et futures. Celles-ci incluent la question du style, la relation entre les notions de
transformateur et de performance, le recours la machine pour rvler la nature
ruse des machinations en jeu, enfin la dette que le commentaire philosophique
ou critique doit aux gestes artistiques impliquant ainsi la reconfiguration de la
pense selon un mode artistique.
Question de style
Lyotard ouvre Les Transformateurs Duchamp de manire surprenante, sur une
plainte propos du style des notes de Duchamp dont la nature sentencieuse et
nigmatique lirrite et le fascine en mme temps. Au lieu de se concentrer sur
laspect visuel des objets dart de Duchamp, comme la critique la traditionnellement fait, Lyotard commence par un examen de sa manire dcrire. Il dsigne
la duret, lobscurit et le manque de sens du style crit de Duchamp, soulignant
lambigut de sa destination et de son destinataire. Tout en notant les effets des
sentences de Duchamp et irrit par le fait dtre affect mais tout aussi pouss
comprendre leur fonctionnement, Lyotard scrute les modes de la mise en phrase
chez Duchamp afin daccder sa pense. Il remarque que les notes de Duchamp
voquent le style des projets ingnieux de Lonardo, mais il nuance son observation
en ajoutant ironiquement quelles appartiendraient un Lonardo dgot de la
pte? [54]. Le problme qui le drange comme philosophe, cest dapprhender
ces gestes ngligeables, quasi imperceptibles, de lcriture de Duchamp, dont le
sens semble se rduire rien, ou presque rien, comme cest le cas dans lironie
ou lhumour. Et pourtant, comme Lyotard le notera par la suite dans ses crits,
cest prcisment ce rien (dont le caractre ngligeable rvlerait aussi son manque
tre quoi que ce soit) qui marque lvnement et lavnement de la pense philosophique: Le geste dart a toujours t ce rien pour le philosophe parce quil
narrive pas le saisir avec les moyens de son argumentation, tandis que ce rien
insiste pourtant dans laffect dont luvre est loccasion, et jusque dans luvre

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philosophique elle-mme. 7 Si le geste de lart ne vaut rien, cest parce que les
modalits de son intervention se drobent aux normes selon lesquelles elles peuvent tre assures et valides par et pour la philosophie. Et donc, puisque le geste
artistique chappe lemprise de largumentation philosophique qui cherche le
catgoriser, il se maintient dans sa capacit insouciante mais pas vraiment superflue de rendre la pense rceptive ses affects.8
Lyotard conclut que le style sentencieux de Duchamp naurait pour autre but et
fin que de nous faire parler [48], nous invitant et nousmenant au commentaire.
Mais, en vrit, que peut dire un commentaire quand sa tentative de parole est
retarde sinon passe sous silence par les gesticulations de luvre? Lyotard rappelle tout suite au lecteur les dangers du commentaire, en particulier quand il se
rduit une description: si vous dcrivez, cest au moins pour faire voir ce quon
naurait pas vu sans vous, donc vous ajoutez votre commentaire au visible [54].
Il suggre que la tentation du commentaire cache un pige, moins pour luvre
dont la signification continue de nous luder, que pour le critique ou le commentateur, victimes de lillusion que la signification de lobjet puisse tre puise par sa
description. Il ajoute cependant que ce qui rsiste linterprtation (et aussi la
rcupration mystique) en demeurant incommentable et, par l, incommensurable, permet au critique dchapper aux cadres rigides de lentendement. Les
tentatives de Lyotard de rendre compte du phras de Duchamp aboutissent aussi
une reconnaissance de lincapacit inhrente du commentaire de sacquitter des
obligations dues luvre. Son tude de ce qui rsiste aux normes du commentaire esquisse et annonce les rflexions ultrieures du Diffrend. Lyotard y reconnat sa dette Duchamp faisant allusion explicitement tant donns : 1 la chute
deau, 2 le gaz dclairage. Il le fera en sappropriant la forme logique et le dfaut
des rubriques du titre de Duchamp, y supplant ses propres affirmations: tant
donn 1 limpossibilit dviter les conflits (limpossibilit de lindiffrence), 2
labsence dun genre de discours universel pour les rgler [], trouver, sinon ce
qui peut lgitimer le jugement (le bon enchanement), du moins comment sau-

Jean-Franois Lyotard, Karel Appel. Un geste de couleur / Karel Appel. A Gesture of Colour, Leuven, Leuven University Press, 2009, 194. Lyotard a prsent une extrait de ce texte sous le titre de Gesture and Commentary Emory University o il enseignait en 1992.
Pour une analyse de laffect et de sa dette dans les crits tardifs de Lyotard, dans une perspective psychanalytique, on lira ltude sminale de Claire Nouvet, The Inarticulate Affect: Lyotard
and Psychoanalytic Testimony, dans Minima Memoria: In the Wake of Jean-Franois Lyotard, publi
par C. Nouvet, Z. Stahuljak and K. Still, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2007, 106-122.

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ver lhonneur de penser.9 En reprenant la logique du titre de Duchamp, Lyotard

la renouvelle afin de rvler la problmatique laquelle fait face le commentaire
dans son effort de rendre luvre un hommage qui sauverait aussi lhonneur de
penser.
Cette tentative dinscrire lincommensurable dans le commentaire affirme
une incongruence fondamentale entre luvre et son interprtation : Celui-ci
devra tre incongruent avec luvre [54]. Cette incongruence, cependant, ne
rsulte pas de lincomprhensibilit, mais plutt dun effort de faire sentir
linconsistance du commentaire et du comment (ibid.). Et linconsistance
nest pas linsignifiance (ibid.), comme le rappelle Lyotard, puisquelle a permis
Duchamp de rsister la doctrine des mouvements artistiques (mme des plus
radicaux, comme Dada) ainsi quaux dictats de lart et du got conventionnels.
Comment Duchamp accomplit-il cela? Il explique James Johnson Sweeney quil
le fit par lemploi des techniques mcaniques10 , ce qui poussa Lyotard conclure
quil faudrait parler mcaniquement de Duchamp comme dun phraseur
machinal [56]. Cela ne veut pourtant pas dire que Duchamp aime linhumain de
la machine pour lui-mme, ou quil clbre navement les objets industriels ou la
technologie.11 Les remarques de Duchamp, que son approche de la machine est
compltement ironique, quil na fabriqu que le capot, comme ses propositions persistantes de pousser bout les lois de la physique le suggrent autrement.12 Le recours ironique de Duchamp lindustrie et aux formes techniques
de la langue et la reprise par Lyotard de la mcanique de son phras reprsentent
des tentatives de tmoigner de linhumanit de la technologie tout en la subvertissant par lassomption dlibre de ses contraintes. La nature obstine et dure
du style sentencieux de Duchamp, qualit qui voque celle du fer (fer et faire sont
homophones), inscrit potiquement la possibilit dune production voire mme
dune transformation. Linertie solide du fer alimenterait donc en apparence
lnergie linguistique et la dynamique de lironie en tant que stratgie discursive.
Lefficacit de lironisme daffirmation de Duchamp nest pas dfinie par le rire

9
10
11

12

Jean-Franois Lyotard, Le Diffrend, Paris, Minuit, 1983, 10.

Duchamp du signe, crits, nouvelle dition de Michel Sanouillet revue et augmente en collaboration avec Elmer Peterson, Flammarion, Paris, 1994, 181.
Simon Malpas suggre que Duchamp se nourrit des dtritus de lindustrialisme . Il interprte la distorsion ou la mcanisation du corps comme un effet transformateur des forces de
lindustrie au lieu de les considrer comme une stratgie mise en place pour maintenir le potentiel transformateur de lart. Voir Malpas, Jean-Franois Lyotard, 95.
Entretien avec Francis Roberts loccasion de la rtrospective Duchamp tenue au Muse dart de
Pasadena en 1963, I propose to Strain the Laws of Physics, dans Art News 67, dcembre 1968,
63. Ma traduction.

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quil provoque, il vite au contraire la transgression dans la mesure o il rvle et

clbre la contingence de la loi [168]. Quand Lyotard sapproprie avec ironie la
logique des phrases de Duchamp, mene froidement, et loin [56], il libre leur
potentiel potique et, par l, leur capacit conceptuelle pousser bout les lois de
la science au risque de les dformer lgrement.
Transformateurs/performeurs
Pourquoi Lyotard intitula-t-il son livre Les Transformateurs Duchamp ? Pour tre
plus exact, peut-on vraiment parler dun livre puisquil est compos dessais et de
confrences labores de 1974 1977?13 Lpigraphe de son volume cite Duchamp:
Je pensais un livre, mais je naimais pas cette ide.14 Cette citation qui claire
le projet artistique de Duchamp, claire-t-elle aussi lintervention philosophique
de Lyotard? La remarque de Duchamp (confie James Johnson Sweeney) prend
son origine dans sa tentative de compiler ses notes, ses diagrammeset ses rflexions/spculations intellectuelles sur LaMarie mise nu par ses Clibataires, mme [le
Grand Verre], efforts qui menrent la production non dun livre, mais dune bote,
La Bote Verte. Son rejet du livre fait cho sa qute dun format qui permettrait
lassemblage de ses notes/ides dune manire qui nimposerait pas un ordre
chronologique ou logique qui violerait leurs rsonances et leur nature contingente. La bote rassemblerait ses notes tout en prservant leur esprit arbitraire,
comme exemples de hasard en conserve. En adoptant une stratgie similaire,
Lyotard a marqu les circonstances matrielles et institutionnelles de ses interventions critiques sur Duchamp. Rejetant pour son livre lide du grand rcit,
dune cohrence magistrale et de la force logique dune argumentation concerte,
il a choisi pour ce volume, comme dans beaucoup dautres de ses crits, un style
fragment et pisodique.15 Ce faisant, il a prvenu la consolidation de ses ides

13

14

15

Geoffrey Bennington rappelle que Lyotard considrait en 1988 quil navait vraiment crit que
trois livres (Discours, figure, conomie libidinale et Le Diffrend) et il suggre que ses autres travaux
ressemblent davantage des notes de lecture ou des analyses prparatoires (Lyotard: Writing the
Event, 2).
Il est intressant de noter que la plupart des livres de Lyotard, quelques exceptions prs, sont
des recueils dessais initis par des occasions spcifiques, des confrences et commissions de diffrents types. Cela veut dire que le lecteur doit ncessairement se reporter de multiples formulations ou itrations de ses ides selon des occasions diffrentes sans le bnfice de la clture
rassurante que donne le livre.
James Williams suggre que luvre de Lyotard dans son ensemble peut tre conue comme une
srie dessais, reprsentant des tentatives exprimentales daborder des sujets dune manire
originale qui invite les considrer comme uvres dart ( Jean-Franois Lyotard : Renewing
the Philosophical Essay , 2 ; brouillon sur Internet qui nest pas destin la publication selon
Williams).

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en les dployant comme des charnires conceptuelles dont le jeu dynamique ne

pouvant pas tre contenu par des dterminations spatiales et chronologiques
conventionnelles.
loccasion dune confrence sur la performance, Lyotard explique quil propose de remplacer performer par transformer [70]. Se rfrant la fabrication
des Trois Stoppages-talons (1911), dans lesquels Duchamp exprimente en enregistrant les formes alatoires gnres par des morceaux de ficelle tombs, Lyotard
rappelle que ce nest pas lacte de Duchamp laissant tomber la ficelle qui produit
cette diffrence significative, mais bien plutt la projection de cette ficelle, grce
lnergie motrice de la pesanteur [70] et lintervention du hasard comme dispositif de transformation, ce qui amne rsumer lvnement comme projection-transformation (ibid.). Rejetant le point de vue humaniste/moderniste
et laccent quil porte sur la performance comme acte et instance individuelles, il
porte son attention sur ses modes dopration et sur ses effets conus comme un
systme de projection. Se tournant vers les dynamiques transformatrices qui sont
mises en mouvement, vritables canalisateurs ou redistributeurs dnergie
(ibid.), plutt que vers linstance cratrice des objets, Lyotard propose un nouveau
type de spculation critique sur lart de Duchamp fond sur une mcanique de la
projection.
Au lieu de traiter les uvres de Duchamp comme des objets ou des actes artistiques, Lyotard se concentre sur le potentiel transformateur de leurs gestes. Il prtend que ce qui se trouve au cur des uvres de Duchamp nest ni leur apparence visuelle ni leurs aspects formels, mais plutt la dynamique quils initient en
terme de transformations et redistributions dnergie. Un transformateur est un
engin lectrique compos de deux bobines de fil mtallique enroules autour dun
noyau ferreux, de telle manire que le courant alternatif dune bobine produit un
courant alternatif dans lautre la mme frquence mais un voltage diffrent.
Sappropriant le potentiel figuratif du transformateur lectrique, Lyotard redploie les nergies de cet appareil pour rendre compte de llan transformateur
prsent dans diffrents types de projection luvre dans lart de Duchamp.
Celles-ci stendent des transpositions du sexe, comme la projection dune moustache ou dun bouc sur la Mona Lisa de Lonard dans son L.H.O.O.Q. (1919) (peut-on
projeter le visage dun homme sur celui dune femme, et vice versa?) en passant
par la projection dans des miroirs (o laffirmation de la symtrie via linversion
marque aussi leur incongruence dans la mesure o ils ne se superposent pas), aux
transformations par projection comprises dans le domaine verbal (perceptibles
par exemple dans lassemblage de systmes de dclinaison et de conjugaison dans

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ses jeux de mots). Ces projections dans le Grand Verre incluent la reprsentation
de la Marie et de ses Clibataires dmantels en viscres, en pices de machines
(qui sont mcaniques et chimiques, en haut, et lectriques, en bas), et dplacent
par consquent le rgime allusif loin de lanatomie humaine ou de la physiologie
dans celui de la gomtrie descriptive qui dessine les points actifs de rencontre et
de collision des forces dynamiques.
Lyotard soutient que la problmatique plastique du Grand Verre est celle des
projections qui sont postules et traites de manires diffrentes dans les deux
moitis de cette uvre. Alors que le haut et le bas du Grand Verre sont comme deux
miroirs joints par une charnire, les images refltes dans ces miroirs ne se placent
pas sur le mme plan et ne fonctionnent pas selon les mmes principes. Ainsi les
rgions suprieure et infrieure, celles de la Marie et des Clibataires, occupent
des espaces semblables et insuperposables [72]. Le domaine de la Marie dans
la rgion du haut du Verre reprsente la projection dune entit irreprsentable,
puisque son modle quatre dimensions est intraduisible dans lespace de la perception. Elle constitue une entit virtuelle, une fiction gomtrique base sur un
postulat qui prdique la transposition dun tre quatre dimensions lintrieur
dun espace tridimensionnel qui, son tour, est projet sur la surface bidimensionnelle du verre. Le domaine de la Marie merge donc comme la sphre
doprations conceptuelles dont le caractre abstrait chappe au champ de la perception visuelle. En contraste, la rgion du bas, celle des Clibataires, est traite
selon les rgles de la perspective italienne qui gouvernent la projection dobjets
trois dimensions sur des surfaces bidimensionnelles. La production de ces effets
tridimensionnels est cependant mine par la transparence du verre qui ne permet
pas lil de le traverser pour explorer son espace virtuel puisquil montre de
vrais objets derrire sa surface. En consquence, lil du spectateur est renvoy
sa propre activit de voir, lempchant de se perdre dans des objets imaginaires.
Lyotard suggre ainsi que Duchamp, alors quil se fonde sur une projection perspectiviste, dplace le potentiel de transformation de luvre en subvertissant
la fonction rfrentielle du verre (son effet de rel ). Ce qui est notable dans
lapproche de Lyotard cest quil dvoile dans les mcanismes de projection qui
sous-tendent le Grand Verre un moment perturbateur, lorsque la machination projective, en apparence unifie, rencontre une rsistance, est renvoye elle-mme
et succombe, rvlant lobservateur sa propre position. Dabord rduite comme
objet du regard du spectateur, fonction dun systme de projection fond sur
les rgles de la perspective italienne, luvre se retourne contre le regardeur,
sapant sa position de sujet et de spectateur en dvoilant ce que cela veut dire dtre

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vu. Posant un dfi la dichotomie sujet/objet qui a domin non seulement le discours philosophique, mais aussi celui de lart, Lyotard suggre que lexprience de
lart met en cause et compromet la matrise du sujet en rduisant et en transformant linstance du spectateur en un objet des mcanismes projectifs de luvre.
Machines/machinations
Lanalyse que Lyotard fait de la machine se rfre la dfinition quen donne Franz
Reuleaux comme une combinaison de corps rsistants, assembls de telle faon
que, par leur moyen et par certaines motions dterminantes, les forces mcaniques de la nature soient obliges de faire le travail.16 Ce qui importe ici cest
que la machine tend un pige aux forces de la nature, dans la mesure o elle constitue de fait un dispositif qui permet de renverser des rapports de force [76].
Linterprtation de la machine chez Lyotard passe donc rapidement du registre de
la mcanique celui de la machination. Ni instrument, ni arme, la machination
est une ruse, un artifice, un stratagme qui tire sa force dune astuce. Elle fonctionne en captant et en exploitant des forces naturelles, mais elle les trompe, parce
que, mme si elle est plus faible quelles, elle les domine et, ainsi, donne lieu ce
paradoxe: que le moins fort soit plus fort que le plus fort [76]. Il note que les
machines Clibataires du Grand Verre participent de cet inconscient de la ruse qui
est impliqu dans linvention des mcanismes (ibid.), soulignant ainsi la prdisposition inhrente la machination que la pense technique moderne dissimule
dans sa volont dmesure de dominer la nature. Par ailleurs, Lyotard tend le
domaine de la machine et des machinations pour y inclure les stratagmes et les
oprations des modes discursifs de Duchamp.
Pour Lyotard, les machinations dans le champ de la mcanique et qui servent
exploiter les nergies du monde physique, manifestent la force rhtorique dont
le corrlatif se trouve dans le jeu sophistique des prsocratiques grecs. Lyotard
reconnat cette logique mcanique dans les exercices rhtoriques prsocratiques
dans lesquels toute production dun discours implique celle dun discours oppos,
rigoureusement parallle, mais allant la conclusion contraire [82]. Ces discours doubles, voire ces duplicits, appels dissoi logoi, scandalisrent les philosophes, tel Aristote, car ils font de la thse la plus faible la plus forte. Le mouvement
16

Le concept de machine chez Lyotard se rfre la dfinition de la machine chez Franz Reuleaux
dans sa Kinematics: Fundamental Principles of a General Theory of Machines (1875) [Cinmatique. Principes fondamentaux dune thorie gnrale des machines, traduction franaise, 1877]. Lyotard prfre
cette dfinition celle quoffre Georges Canguilhem dans sa Machine et organisme, La Connaissance de la vie (1952).

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et le contre-mouvement de ces doubles discours dfont la logique conventionnelle

de la philosophie rduisant le philosophe lincongruence [88]. Prenant plaisir rvler dans les machinations, vritables stratagmes, qui sous-tendraient
la force rhtorique du discours philosophique des Anciens, Lyotard oppose avec
dlice les sophistes aux philosophes, les dissimulateurs aux assimilateurs, les
artistes aux raisonneurs, et les machines clibataires aux mcanismes industriels. Le dispositif stratgique de ces machinations cherche dsorganiser et donc
prvenir lmergence possible de toute machine totalisatrice et unificatrice, que
ce soit en matire de technique [], de langage ou de politique [84].17 Cet exercice
enjou de sophistique paenne de Lyotard va stendre et dranger la logique des
oprations spculaires, allant jusqu questionner mme lappareil qui, en apparence, reproduit et rend identique. Il examine le miroir comme une machine qui
est alimente par les objets quon lui prsente et qui produit dautres objets: les
images quelle rflchit. Il ajoute: Le regardeur est lusager de cette machine
[86]. Ce faisant, il dmontre que le miroir nest pas seulement machine duplicative, mais aussi duplicit. La ruse du miroir tient dans ce que sa fidlit et son
infidlit se produisent ensemble (116), dans un double jeu dont lincongruence
radicale, selon Kant, contredit les prmisses du discours spculaire.
Tromper le temps, interrompre la conscience
Lyotard a observ que le style des titres et des annotations de Duchamp peut tre lu
comme des instructions dans la mesure o celles-ci constituent presque des recettes,
mais aussi des descriptions, crant une certaine attente logique quen retour il
dtrompe [140].18 Par exemple, le titre de LaMarie mise nu par ses Clibataires, mme
[le Grand Verre] suggre que quelque chose se passe ou va se passer. Il annonce un vnement possible, une mise nu dont lavnement est maintenu dans la promesse
dun rcit dont les figures inscrites au Verre seraient les protagonistes. Cette ruption de la promesse temporelle issue dun rcit et pose comme prmisse, contraste
avec dautres incongruits temporelles et risque le scandale logique. Lyotard rappelait en effet que le fait dtre clibataire est une condition continue, alors que le
fait dtre marie est temporairement li, nexistant seulement que dans lespace
17

18

Le privilge reconnu par Lyotard au paen est labor plus en profondeur dans ses travaux philosophiques publis la mme poque : Instructions paennes, Paris, Galile, 1977, et Rudiments paens, Paris, UGE, Collection 10/18, 1977 ( paratre chez Klincksieck).
Il dcrit le style de Duchamp en termes d amphibologie (terminologie quil emprunte La
Critique de la raison pure de Kant) en qualifiant son caractre paradoxal de paralogisme , concept
repris Aristote [140-142]. Il ajoute : Cest cette forme amphibologique (neutre et dontique)
qui se trouvera en accord avec ce quil y a de paradoxal dans la logique mme de lentreprise.
logique de charnire, style de charnire (ibid.).

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dun jour et dune nuit, entre les tats de vierge et dpouse [148]. La facticit, mise
en scne en ce lieu, de la logique et des clauses dtant donns: 1 la chute deau, 2 le gaz
dclairage abandonne le rcit au profit de la preuve. Le titre contient la promesse
tenue par une proposition hypothtique ou implication, mme quand cette
dernire demeure suspendue dans un futur problmatique crant une nigme
logique. Notant le transfert de la fonction narrative dans la scne visible dtant
donns, Lyotard conclut: Si une histoire est raconte ici, ce nest plus au lecteur,
cest au voyeur. Elle nest plus crite[], elle est virtuelle [172]. Les projections temporelles et logiques mises en scne par les titres ne crent lillusion de rfrences
verbales et visuelles que pour la questionner en retour.
Lyotard avance que le jeu de ces projections dans le Grand Verre est aussi luvre
dans Etant donns, accouplant ces deux ouvrages en un circuit unique de transformations. Ces uvres marquent le passage dune formulation plastique asctique
et critique [74] une formulation populaire, pornographique, paenne (ibid.)
dun seul et mme objet. Il dcle dans lartificialit ouverte dtant donns, une
tentative de produire une toute autre perspective sur la critique des sens que le
Grand Verre inaugura grce ses protocoles perspectivistes:
Duchamp comprend quen travaillant sur les projections 2-dimensionnelles, seraientelles dobjets 4-dimensionnels, il ne smancipe nullement de la critique des sens qui est
lobsession mtaphysique de lOccident platonicien et chrtien, il la continue. Sil affirme,
avec tant donns, la reprsentation-narration dans toute sa force humoristique (lhumour
anaglyphique) ce nest pas pour dnoncer les illusions dans la Caverne, ni mme lillusion de
la Caverne, mais pour dire: cette projection-l nest pas plus mauvaise quune autre, elle aussi
bonne, parce quil ny a que des projections. [204]

tant donns reviendra lillusionisme du visible, non pour le dnoncer, mais pour
laffirmer avec ironie, revendiquant ainsi sa ncessit mme si sa raison dtre se
rduit la contingence. Il conclut en rappelant que ce que Duchamp met en perspective est le constat quil ny a que des projections, bonnes, mauvaises ou indiffrentes.
Mais comment deux uvres soi-disant lies peuvent-elles paratre si radicalement diffrentes ? Le Verre a t dcrit comme appartenant au domaine de
lapparition, puisque luvre est conceptuelle, spculative et virtuelle, plutt qu
celui des apparences que lincarnation matrielle dtant donns, faite corps, met en
scne comme un peep-show.19 Lyotard interprte cette discontinuit apparente dans
lexprience du regard quen a le spectateur, selon son analyse de ses implications

19

Duchamp labore ces termes d apparition et d apparences dans ses notes (Duchamp du
signe, 120-122).

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temporelles. Renvoyant une uvre tardive de Duchamp, Cols alits (1959) dont le
titre voque lhomophone causalit, Lyotard rappelle que Duchamp a parachev
le schmatisme abstrait du Verre en introduisant du figuratif dans limage en guise
darrire-pense. La connexion du dispositif des Clibataires un poteau lectrique
et lintroduction dune esquisse peine visible dun paysage de collines, qui est
aussi reprise au bas de la section de la Marie dans le Verre, gnrent une collision
radicale entre deux systmes de reprsentation artistique. Ce retour tardif une
figuration inscrite dans le Verre fait explicitement allusion au paysagisme insolent [144] et au rle cach de llectricit dans tant donns sur lequel Duchamp
travaillait en secret lpoque. Linscription du paysage figuratif et illusionniste
dtant donns dans le Verre lie ces deux uvres, mais le caractre contingent de leur
association sert ici marquer leur disjonction fondamentale. Ce qui rapproche ces
deux objets cest leur capacit perturber, alors que lapparente cohsion de leurs
machinations, dans les domaines respectifs des apparences et des apparitions, se
heurte une rsistance et, renvoye elle-mme, est dfaite. Ces machinations, ces
transformations, ces dfections tmoignent defforts pour djouer la conscience
par la confusion et la disruption des registres temporels et visuels.
La rintroduction du paysage dans tant donns implique de ramener et de
revenir apparemment ce quoi Duchamp avait essay dchapper dans le Verre.
Mais par ce retour au paysage figuratif, mettait-il seulement en avant-plan quelque
chose qui tait dj l, puisquil travaillait avec du verre et non de la toile? Il est
utile de se souvenir ici que Duchamp avait dsign le Grand Verre comme un dlai
en verre, indiquant quil utilisait le terme dlai pour viter toute allusion la
peinture. Lintroduction du dlai met en jeu une dimension temporelle qui interrompt et intercepte limmdiatet et la gratification du regard du spectateur. Ces
considrations temporelles interviennent pour dranger et retarder lavnement
de la vision dans le Grand Verre, ajournant son mergence comme vnement. Dans
le cas dtant donns, le spectateur, devenu voyeur, ne dispose plus dun intervalle
temporel. Au lieu dtre ralenti par lintelligence requise pour pntrer le verre,
lil du voyeur voit tout dun coup, dans limmdiatet impitoyable de linstant,
comme cest le cas dans lexposition photographique. valuant limportance de
larticulation de ces deux uvres, Lyotard suggre que la totalit du corpus de
Duchamp se place dans cette vaste charnire temporelle qui existe entre un vnement qui arrive la fois trop tard et trop tt, et que le regard essaye de le saisir :

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Soit la mise nu: avant elle, le corps est cach au regard; aprs elle, il lui est expos. Elle est
linstant de la transformation ou mtamorphose de cet avant en cet aprs. Elle nest saisissable que comme cette limite. Donc deux solutions . Celle du Verre, o le regard vient toujours trop tt, parce que lvnement est en retard , le corpus restant dpouiller sans fin.
Avec celle dtant donns , cest le regard qui arrive trop tard, la mise nu est faite, reste la
nudit. Maintenant fait charnire entre pas encore et dj plus. [206]

Lyotard explore les implications temporelles du Verre et dtant donns comme

une stratgie de Duchamp pour tromper la logique du regard, soit en tentant
deffacer le corps comme objet du regard, do son destin de mise nu persistante, soit en offrant le corps sa saisie consommatrice, en le rduisant une
nudit si frappante quelle touche lopprobre de lobscne. Ces reprsentations
du regard dans le Verre et dtant donns mettent en jeu des scandales temporels dont lincongruence fondamentale interrompt et retarde lintervention de
lesprit. Pour le spectateur, ces scnarios de temporalits mutuellement exclusifs,
le pas encore et le dj plus, font problme dans la mesure o leur articulation simultane dans un prsent temporel trouble lordre de la conscience.20 Ce
dilemme implicite dans lexprience du spectateur des uvres de Duchamp (qui
se voit dup et donc dnu des normes du jugement par une intelligence luvre
dans lavnement et lvnement de lobjet) constitue une ressource spculative
et philosophique importante pour Lyotard. Il lui permettra de postuler dans ses
crits ultrieurs luvre dart comme vnement, cest--dire une intervention
temporelle qui vient la fois trop tard et trop tt, mais dont lincongruence
logique continuera alimenter son mergence potentielle.21 De plus, dans la
mesure o les interventions de Duchamp prennent la forme dun vnement,
elles le font dans une modalit qui rend possible le postmoderne compris non pas
comme un dveloppement historique, mais comme une incongruence temporelle
qui opre selon la logique du futur antrieur ou du postmoderne: De l que
luvre et le texte aient les proprits de lvnement, de l aussi quils arrivent
toujours trop tard pour leur auteur, ou, ce qui revient au mme, que leur mise en
uvre commence toujours trop tt , suggrant quelles devraient tre comprise

20

21

Pour llaboration ultrieure de Lyotard propos du jeu plastique chez Duchamp quil associe
au genre de la Vanitas, comme les Annonciations de Barnett Newman, voir Newman: LInstant,
dans LInhumain: causeries sur le temps, Paris, Galile, 1988.
Anne Tomiche note que lanalyse que Lyotard fait du fonctionnement de luvre dart est soustendue par une analogie lappareil psychique, qui passe dun compte rendu initial des forces au
phras (voir Lyotard and/on Literature, 161).

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| Postface

selon le paradoxe dun futur antrieur ou du postmoderne.22 Dans le domaine de

la philosophie, les explorations des incongruences temporelles et logiques qui traversent les uvres de Duchamp vont permettre Lyotard dlaborer par la suite
sa notion de sublime qui culminera dans sa lecture de Kant dans ses Leons sur
lAnalytique du sublime (1991).23
Gestes et commentaire
Aprs avoir examin les moments cls du travail de Lyotard sur Duchamp,
comment doit-on comprendre son intervention critique ? Ce qui merge de la
manire la plus forte et la plus insistante dans lanalyse quoffre Lyotard dans
Les Transformateurs Duchamp, cest la problmatisation de la relation entre geste
artistique et commentaire, un sujet dont il continuera larticulation dans ses
travaux ultrieurs. Critiquant et abandonnant en effet la matrise hgmonique
du discours philosophique et de largumentation sur les objets artistiques et littraires, il met en question la dette que luvre doit son commentateur, ce qui
est garanti par le protocole traditionnel de linterprtation. Dans une inversion
fondamentale des rapports du sujet/objet et du schma actionnel, il rappelle a
contrario lobligation que doit le commentateur luvre: Il avait contract une
dette envers luvre, dans tous les cas, du fait que celle-ci, par sa seule existence,
en tant que manire dtre lespace, au temps, la forme, etc., lavait prcd
dans llaboration de ces questions. Quelle avait t sa matresse en ces questions.
Il lui devait de la pense, il tait amoureux delle, il allait lui donner ce quil navait
pas.24 Lyotard repositionne le philosophe aux gestes de luvre, ce quelle doit
endurer pour que sacquitte lobligation contracte envers les modes de prsentation de luvre. Luvre invite et provoque lirruption de la pense, un geste
qui commande au commentateur de donner ce quil na pas, cest--dire des
mots pour dire le geste.25 Mais il serait erron de considrer cette dette de style
comme une dette que la philosophie doive simplement lart. Dans un sens bien
plus radical, Lyotard suggre plutt que la philosophie doit cette dette du style

22

23

24
25

Rponse la question: quest-ce que le postmoderne ? dans Critique (avril 1982) 38 (419), 367.
Pour une formulation et critique des paradoxes temporels du postmodernisme de Lyotard, on
consultera La Condition postmoderne: rapport sur le savoir, Paris, Minuit, 1979.
Rodolphe Gasch a montr que le concept de sublime de Lyotard nimplique pas une esthtisation de la pense philosophique puisquil est lindication du lien lmentaire entre le penser
philosophique et laffect de la possibilit du non-tre (The Sublime, Ontologically Speaking dans Yale French Studies, 99, Jean-Franois Lyotard: Time and Judgment, 125. Ma traduction).
Jean-Franois Lyotard, Karel Appel. Un geste de couleur / Karel Appel. A Gesture of Colour, Leuven, Leuven University Press, 2009, 34-36.
Op.cit., 36.

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| Postface

la pense dans la mesure o cette dernire merge de lexpression. Au lieu de

prsumer la priorit et lautonomie ultime de la pense sur lexpression, Lyotard
affirme que cest la pense qui est endette de lexpression. Si la dette du style
ne peut pas tre rgle simplement par un commerce avec lart ou par ladoption
dun style artistique, cest parce que la question du style met en avant la dette fondamentale que la pense doit lexpression. Cest pourquoi le philosophe ne peut
pas sacquitter de sa dette la pense sans prendre en compte et rendre justice
cette affaire de style. Lyotard exhorte les philosophes crire plutt qu
simplement penser, les dfiant de se mettre penser la pense comme uvre,
et non plus comme argument .26 Penser la pense comme uvre dart plutt
que comme raisonnement exige par consquent que lcriture philosophique
mdite son propre discours, ses gestes et ses formes expressives, mette en doute
son assujettissement aux normes mme si cest au risque dune expropriation.27
Interrogeant ses conditions de possibilit, il doit assumer que lattestation porte la fonction rfrentielle du discours par la philosophie lui cache compltement ce quil y a aussi de gestes mme dans ce discours 28 de manire retrouver
de nouvelles formes dexpression et donc de signification pour la philosophie.
Pour que la pense soit une uvre dart, elle doit se dployer comme un vnement dont le savoir et le destin nont pas t dtermins par avance, et consentir
tre un accident de lexpression mergeant dans laprs-coup. Ce que Lyotard a
compris dans Duchamp, cest que sa critique initiale de lart comme exprience
visuelle ne sest pas simplement conclue dans ses tentatives de conceptualisation
de lart incarne par le Grand Verre, mais plutt que ce mouvement vers le conceptuel impliquait et, au bout de compte, exigeait un retour lexpression visuelle
pour anticiper la consolidation du conceptuel, en prenant refuge dans une forme
dironie visuelle qui continuerait alimenter et mouvoir le potentiel transformateur des deux uvres.
Cette ncessit contingente, paradoxalement inscrite dans lexpression qui
pousse le destin de la pense, semble avoir t crite furtivement dans la vie de
Lyotard par le destin temporel suggr par son nom:

26
27

28

Op.cit., 54.
Rodolphe Gasch suggre que la tche de Lyotard ne consiste pas sauver la pense en pensant une nouvelle exprience mtaphysique, mais plutt corriger les maux de la pense en
pensant, tout en reconnaissant quaucune critique claire ne peut librer la pense de son
potentiel pour le pire (Saving the Honor of Thinking dans The Honor of Thinking: Critique,
Theory, Philosophy, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2007, 294. Ma traduction).
Op.cit., 52.

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| Postface

Je sens que quelque chose de mon nom est crit dans ma vie: trop tard. Mes tudiants rptent
cette blague mon propos, sans malice pourtant, disant: mieux Lyotard que jamais. Jai toujours pens que ctait vrai dans un certain sens Et ainsi je me suis mis tard lcriture, et beaucoup Dieu merci sest pass pour maider comprendre ce qui doit tre vraiment penser.29

Il semblerait quil vaille mieux tre en retard, ou tardif, puisque le dlai de Lyotard
se mettre lcriture philosophique lui permit de rflchir ses conditions de possibilit et de comprendre ce qui doit tre pens et comment. Cette rsistance la
vitesse marque son hsitation accder des formes prexistantes de pense et
dargumentation. Bien plus, elle accentue son refus de compromettre ses crits
en acceptant des formes de schmatisation ncessaires pour faciliter la rduction de ses ides pour leur consommation de masse. Rtrospectivement, cest ce
retard lcriture qui pourrait expliquer la prdilection que Lyotard trahit pour
Duchamp (qui se dsignait lui-mme comme un ingnieur du temps perdu).30 Les
Transformateurs Duchamp prservent Duchamp de la ngation et de la fin de lart,
trop vite clbre, montrant comment il dfia la signification de lesthtique grce
une stratgie ironique dont le potentiel transformateur a restitu lart sa capacit non pas tre, mais advenir, et faire que les choses adviennent, prcisment
parce que cet art ne pouvait plus tre dfini.31 Cette dcouverte du potentiel transformateur de lart, comme vnement dont lavnement ne reposerait sur aucun
concept prliminaire, arriverait trop tard ou commencerait trop tt, prfigurant
les tentatives de Lyotard dinventer par la suite les possibilits dune pense qui la
feraient advenir, mais seulement au risque, ou plutt dans la promesse, de ne plus
pouvoir se reconnatre ou se revendiquer comme telle.
Traduction dYvan Bamps, Emory University

29
30
31

Jean-Franois Lyotard and Gilbert Larochelle, That Which Resists, After All, Philosophy Today,
Winter 1992, 402. Ma traduction.
Marcel Duchamp, Ingnieur du temps perdu: Entretiens avec Pierre Cabanne, Paris, Pierre Belfond, 1977, 19.
Pour un approfondissement de la notion de transformateur dans le corpus des travaux de
Lyotard, on pourra consulter Les Transformateurs Lyotard, dit par C. Enaudeau, J.-F. Nordman,
J.-M. Salankis and F. Worms, Paris, Sens & Tonka & Compagnie, 2008.

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Epilogue
Dalia Judovitz
His [Duchamps] finest work is his use of time.
J.-P. Roch
I feelthat something of my name is written in my life:
trop tard (too late). And so I came late to writing
J.-F. Lyotard

How should the reader understand Jean-Franois Lyotards Duchamps TRANS/
formers [1977] (1990)1 and its legacies? If this question comes up today and with
some urgency, it is not simply because Lyotards writings on art are finally being
compiled and are thus granted or rather restituted greater accessibility and public
recognition. Considered to represent a philosophical approach to Duchamps art,
the impact of this work has been largely restricted to art historians with an interest in theory. The focus has been primarily on Lyotards analysis of the phenomenological implications of Duchamps Given: 1. The Waterfall 2. The Illuminating Gas
(1946-1966; his last work and testament), and particularly on the corporealization
of vision produced through the alignment and ultimate collapse of the viewing
and the vanishing point.2 Despite Lyotards recurrent writings on art and aesthetics, starting with his inaugural volume Discourse, Figure [1971] (2010), philosophers
have largely ignored his work on Duchamp regarding it as merely a philosophical
incursion into art. Consigned to aesthetics, Duchamps TRANS/formers and Lyotards
subsequent writings on art have been marginalized from his supposed larger philosophical concerns and disquisitions.3
Is this oversight which in effect amounts to a dismissal of the philosophical
inquiry and import of Duchamps TRANS/formers warranted, and more importantly,
1
2

The dates indicated refer to the French publication date, followed by the English translation date of
the work in question. All page references to Duchamps TRANS/formers will be placed in parenthesis.
For some notable examples, see Rosalind E. Krauss, The Optical Unconscious, Cambridge and London, MIT Press, 1994, 111-126; and more recently, Michael R. Taylor, Marcel Duchamp: tant donns, Philadephia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2009, 191-195; his comprehensive documentation
and research study invites new critical engagements with Duchamps Given.
Most of the special issues or critical collections on Lyotard have focused on his philosophical
writings alone, making but sporadic mention of his writings on art, see LArc (1976); Diacritics
(1984); Les Cahiers de Philosophie (1988); LEsprit Crateur (1991), Philosophy Today (1992); Parallax
(2001). Some notable exceptions include: Geoffrey Bennington, Lyotard: Writing the Event, New
York, Columbia University Press, 1988, Bill Readings, Introducing Lyotard: Art and Politics, London,
Routledge, 1991 and Simon Malpas, Jean-Franois Lyotard, London and NY, Routledge, 2003.

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| Epilogue

can it be sanctioned by Lyotards approach in his efforts to rethink the nature of

philosophical thought and expression? His later iterations of ideas broached in
this work, namely, his engagement with art in order to reinvent philosophical
thought and expression, and indeed, his turn towards literature in his later works,
especially from the 1990s onwards, strongly argue otherwise.4 This attempt to relegate artistic concerns to aesthetics, segregating them from the purview of philosophy proper, not only comes into question, but I think becomes one of the central issues at the heart of Lyotards philosophical endeavor. This idea comes to the
forefront in his later writings, particularly during the last decade of his life, when
Lyotard posits the philosophical potential of art and literature as an explicit
challenge to the discipline of philosophy and its practitioners. He advances the
daring, even scandalous, notion that some philosophers, writers, or artists may
have a claim to being more philosophical than the institutionally legitimated
masters of philosophy at large:
Wittgenstein, Gertrude Stein, Joyce or Duchamp, seem like better philosophical minds
than Nietzsche or Heidegger by better I mean more apt to take into consideration the exitless nothingness the West gives birth to in the first quarter of the twentieth century; and
by more philosophical, I mean, if it is true that philosophizing is an affair of style An
affair of style, I do believe this is what agitates and threatens philosophy today, which is both
tempted by and suspicious of it.5

Is Lyotard simply rehashing here the old standing rivalry between philosophy
and literature that Plato inaugurated in the Republic with his iconic dismissal
of literature as that bitch that growls and snarls at her master (Republic, 607b)?
And does his appeal to the philosophical potential of literature and art amount
to a mere rhetorical ploy? Or are we to take him at his word and consider the

His writings during the last decade of his life, starting with Signed Malraux [1996] (2001), Soundproof Room: Malrauxs Anti-Aesthetics [1998] (2001), Confession of Augustine [1998] (2000) and his
posthumous Misre de la philosophie (2000), attest to his continued efforts to engage with literature, and questions of style and affect, attempting to teach philosophy how to lend an ear to
literature.
Jean-Franois Lyotard, The Zone, Postmodern Fables, trans. G. Van Den Abbeele, Minneapolis
and London, University of Minnesota Press, 1997, 23. Commenting on this passage, Anne Tomiche points out that Lyotards literary cannon focuses on writers who are more interested in the
how of representation than in what is represented, thereby questioning the very possibility of
representation, see her Lyotard and/on Literature, Yale French Studies, 99, Jean-Franois Lyotard:
Time and Judgment, eds. R. Harvey and L. R. Schehr, Yale University Press, 2001, 150.

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| Epilogue

possibility that the very edifice of philosophy and its critical modes of thought
are at issue? Interrogating the enforced distinction between philosophy and literature, understood as an opposition between an art of thinking and an art of representation, Lyotard questions the reduction of philosophy to a matter of thought
that can pretend to distinguish and extricate itself from stylistic considerations.
In a radical move, he contends that the philosophical standing and understanding of thought itself is at stake and is driven by the question of style. Challenging
the priority of thought over expression he will suggest in his writings that the
manner of expression or style is not incidental to thought since it is necessarily
required for its advent and development as an event.
Lyotards focus on expression as the condition of possibility of thought is
not surprising given his philosophical lineage which goes back to Maurice
Merleau-Ponty and Mikel Dufrenne. In both these thinkers, the phenomenological moment gave way to efforts to rethink the philosophical implications of the
nature of artistic expression. This post-humanist perspective was fueled by developments in linguistics and psychoanalysis and was leading towards rethinking
the nature and role of art in enabling the emergence of new possibilities for figuring thought. However, this philosophical turn towards art must not be misunderstood or reduced to a philosophical attempt to engage with literature and art,
or, in an even more tendentious sense, to adopt a poetic or artistic style. Lyotard
cautioned later in his writings, that: The debt of style cannot be discharged by
the philosopher simply by way of doing something aesthetic.6 Rather than
relying on a conventional understanding of style as a mode of expression that
is instrumental or ornamental to thought, Lyotard (drawing on Merleau-Ponty)
posits style as a gestural meaning that is immanent in speech. He invites a deeper
inquiry into the nature of philosophical expression as a performance whose gestural and material character will radically undermine the idea and conventions
of philosophical thought. Lyotards reflections on expression are symptomatic of
the emergence of a philosophical question regarding thought that resists articulation within the conventional regimes of philosophical discourse. In this essay, I
will consider Duchamps TRANS/formers as a portal to Duchamps works that opens
onto the question of the advent and event of art while demanding at the same time
the redefinition of thought itself. However, by inviting consideration of thought
itself as a work of art, Duchamps TRANS/formers also emerges as a portal to Lyotards
6

The Zone, Postmodern Fables, 24.

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| Epilogue

larger philosophical project, inscribing both the past and future trajectory of his
works in its encompassing reach. I will focus on key issues that act as hinges
(a term Lyotard borrowed from Duchamp) that will enable the conceptual articulations and movement of his thought in reference to Duchamp, as well provide
insight on his philosophical project as it moves through its multiple iterations
between past and future works. These include the question of style, the relation
of transformers to notions of performance, the appeal to the machine in order to
reveal the cunning nature of the machinations at play, and the debt that the philosophical or critical commentary owes to artistic gestures that will mandate the
reconfiguration of thought in the mode of art.
The question of style
Duchamps TRANS/formers opens in a surprising way, with Lyotards complaint
regarding Duchamps style of presentation in his notes, whose sententious and
enigmatic nature at once irritate and intrigue him. Instead of engaging visually
with Duchamps art objects, as critics have conventionally done, Lyotard proceeds
to inquire into his manner of writing. He points to the hardness, obscurity and
lack of sense of Duchamps style of writing, underlining the ambiguity of where
it leads and for whom. Noting the effects of Duchamps pronouncements, irritated at being affected by them but also provoked to understand how they work,
Lyotard scrutinizes Duchamps modes of phrasing in order to gain access to his
thought. He observes that Duchamps notes recall the style of Leonardos ingenious projects, but he qualifies his assessment by remarking ironically that they
belong to a Leonardo that is sick and tired of glue? [55]. The problem that troubles him as philosopher is how to take into account Duchamps negligible, almost
imperceptible gestures in his style of writing, whose meaning seems to amount to
nothing, or almost nothing as in the case of irony or humor. And yet, as Lyotard
will later note in his writings, it is precisely this nothing (whose negligibility may
also reflect its lack of being any particular thing) that marks the advent and event
of philosophical thought: [] the gesture of art has always been this nothing
for the philosopher, since he fails to grasp it with his means of argumentation,
while this nothing nonetheless persists in the affect that the work occasions, and
even in the philosophical work itself.7 If the gesture of art amounts to nothing,
7

Jean-Franois Lyotard, Karel Appel. Un geste de couleur / Karel Appel. A Gesture of Colour, Leuven, Leuven University Press, 2009, 195. Lyotard presented a section of this book under the title Gesture
and Commentary at Emory University where he was teaching in 1992.

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| Epilogue

this is because its modes of intervention eschew the standards by which they can
be secured and validated by and for philosophy. Thus, while the artistic gesture
escapes the grasp of philosophical argumentation seeking to categorize it, it perdures in its negligent and yet not altogether negligible capacity to render thought
susceptible to its affects. 8
Lyotard concludes that Duchamps sententiousness may have no other purpose or end than to make us speak [49] calling and leading us to commentary.
But what can commentary actually say when its attempt at speech is set back and
hushed by the gesticulations of the work? Lyotard is quick to remind the reader of
the pitfalls of commentary, especially as it lapses into description: If you describe,
its to show what would not have been seen without you, so you add your words to
the visible [55]. He suggests that the temptation to commentary holds a trap, less
for the work whose meaning continues to slip away, than for the critic/commentator suffering under the delusion that the works meaning would be exhausted by
his or her description. However, he suggests that what resists interpretation (and
also mystical recuperation) by remaining uncommentable and thus incommensurable saves the critic from the rigid measures of understanding. Lyotards
attempts to do justice to Duchamps ways of phrasing also represent his recognition of the inherent inability of commentary to discharge itself of the obligations
it owes to the work. His inquiry into what resists the norms of commentary adumbrates and announces his later investigations in The Differend [1983] (1988). Lyotard
will mark his debt to Duchamp by explicitly alluding to Given: 1) The Waterfall 2) The
Illuminating Gas. He will do so by appropriating the logical form and rubric breakdown of Duchamps title and by supplementing it with his own claims: Given
1) the impossibility of avoiding conflicts (the impossibility of indifference) and 2)
the absence of a universal genre of discourse to regulate them: to find, if not
what can legitimate judgment (the good linkage), then at least how to save the
honor of thinking. 9
This attempt to bring the incommensurable into commentary affirms a fundamental incongruence between the work and its interpretation: Commentary
will perforce be incongruent with the work [55]. However, this incongruence
is the result not of incomprehensibility, but rather of the attempt to let the
8

For an analysis of affect and the debt to affect in Lyotards late writings, from a psychoanalytic
perspective, see Claire Nouvets seminal account in The Inarticulate Affect: Lyotard and Psychoanalytic Testimony, in Minima Memoria: In the Wake of Jean-Franois Lyotard, eds. C. Nouvet, Z.
Stahuljak and K. Still, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2007, 106-122.
Jean-Franois Lyotard, The Differend: Phrases in Dispute, trans. G. Van Den Abbeele, Minneapolis
and London, University of Minnesota Press, 1988, Preface: Reading Dossier, xii.

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| Epilogue

inconsistency of the commentary and its object to be felt (ibid.). And this inconsistency is not insignificance, as Lyotard cautions since it enabled Duchamp to
resist the doctrine of artistic movements (even the most radical, such as Dada)
along with the dictates of art and conventional taste. How did Duchamp do this?
He explained to James Johnson Sweeney that he did so by the use of mechanical
techniques,10 leading Lyotard to conclude that you have to speak mechanically
about Duchamp, as a machine like phrasemaker [57]. However, this does not
mean that Duchamp loves the inhuman in the machine for its own sake, or that
he is naively celebrating objects of industry or technology.11 Duchamps remarks,
that his approach to the machine was completely ironic, that he made only the
hood, and his persistent proposals to strain the laws of physics suggest otherwise.12 Duchamps ironic recourse to industry and technical forms of speech and
Lyotards reprise of the mechanics of his phrasing represent attempts to bear witness to the inhumanity of technology while undermining it through the deliberate assumption of its constraints. The obdurate and hard nature of Duchamps
sententious style, its iron-like quality (fer, in French which puns with faire, to
make), also inscribes poetically the possibility of production, even transformation. The inert solidity of iron would thus appear to linguistically fuel the energy
and dynamics of irony, as discursive strategy. Thus the efficacy of Duchamps
ironism of affirmation is not marked by the fact that it provokes laughter, rather
it eschews transgression insofar as it discovers and celebrates the laws contingency [169]. Lyotards ironic appropriation of the logic of Duchamps phrases
coldly carried out and distant [57] liberates their nonsensical potential and
hence, their poetic capacity to strain and even bend the laws of science.
TRANS/formers/Performers
Why did Lyotard entitle his book Duchamps TRANS/formers? And to be precise, is
it really a book, given that it is made up of essays and lectures elaborated from

10

11

12

Duchamp du signe, crits, new ed. Michel Sanouillet, reviewed and augmented with the collaboration of Elmer Peterson, Paris, Flammarion, 1994, 181; Writings of Marcel Duchamp, eds. Michel
Sanouillet and Elmer Peterson New York, A Da Capo Press, 1989, 130.
Malpas interprets Duchamp as feeding off the detritus of industrialism and he reads the
distortion or mechanization of the body as a transformative effect of the powers of industry,
instead of considering it as a strategy for sustaining the transformative potential of art, see JeanFranois Lyotard, 95.
Interview with Francis Roberts on the occasion of Duchamps retrospective at the Pasadena Museum of Art in 1963, I propose to Strain the Laws of Physics, Art News 67, December 1968, 63.

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| Epilogue

1974 to 1977?13 Lyotards epigraph to the volume quotes Duchamp: I was thinking of a book, but I didnt like that idea.14 But does this citation that illuminates
Duchamps artistic project also reflect on Lyotards own philosophical intervention? Duchamps remark (made to James Johnson Sweeney) was occasioned by
his attempts to compile his notes, diagrams and his intellectual reflections/
speculations pertaining to The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even [The Large
Glass], efforts that lead to the production not of a book, but of a box, The Green
Box. Duchamps rejection of a book reflected his search for a format that would
enable the assemblage of his notes/ideas in a manner that would not impose a
chronological or logical order that would violate their resonances and contingent
nature. The box would bring the notes together but preserve their arbitrary spirit,
as instances of canned chance. Adopting a similar strategy, Lyotard marked the
material and institutional conditions of his critical interventions on Duchamp.
Rejecting the grand narrative of the book, the magisterial coherence and logical
force of concerted argumentation, he opted in this volume, as in many of his other
writings, for a fragmentary and episodic style of presentation.15 In so doing, he
preempted the consolidation of ideas by deploying them as conceptual hinges
whose dynamic play would not be contained by conventional spatial and chronological determinations.
Triggered by the occasion of a conference on performance, Lyotard explained
that he proposed to replace the term performer by transformer [71]. Referring
to the fabrication of Duchamps Three Standard Stoppages (1911), in which he experimented with recording the random shapes generated by fallen pieces of string,
Lyotard stressed that it was not Duchamps performance of dropping the thread
that made the critical difference. Rather, it was the projection of this thread,
thanks to the motor energy of its weight [71] and the intervention of chance
as transformative apparatus, leading him to sum up this event as projection
13

14

15

In 1988, Geoffrey Bennington observes that Lyotard saw himself as having written three real
books (Discours, Figure, conomie libidinale and Le Diffrend) and he suggests that his other works
were more like reading notes or preparatory analyses in Lyotard: Writing the Event, 2.
It is interesting to note that most of Lyotards books with a few exceptions are collections of essays initiated by specific occasions, conferences and commissions of various kinds. This means
that his readers must necessarily refer to multiple formulations or iterations of his ideas depending on the occasion without the reassuring closure provided by a book.
James Williams suggests that Lyotards work as a whole can be seen as a series of essays, representing experimental attempts to tackle topics in an original manner that invites their consideration as art-works, in Jean-Franois Lyotard: Renewing the Philosophical Essay, 2 (web draft,
not for publication according to Williams).

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as transformance (ibidem). Shunning the humanist/modernist meaning and

emphasis on performance as individual act and agency, he refocused attention on
its modes of operation and effects as a system of projection. Addressing himself
to the transformative dynamics that are set into motion for channeling or redistributing energy (ibidem), rather than to artistic agency in the creation of objects,
Lyotard opens up a new kind of speculative inquiry into Duchamps art based on
a mechanics of projection.
Instead of treating Duchamps works as objects or artistic acts, Lyotard focuses
on the transformative potential of his gestures. He contends that what is at the
heart of Duchamps works is neither their visual appearance nor their formal
aspects, but rather the dynamics that they set into motion in terms of transformations and redistributions of energy. A transformer is an electrical device composed of two coils of wire wound around an iron core, such that the alternating
current in one coil induces an alternating current in the other coil of the same
frequency but of different voltage. Appropriating the figurative potential of the
electrical transformer, Lyotard redeploys the energies of this device to account for
the transformative impetus at work in different types of projection at work in the
Duchamps oeuvre. This ranges from projections of gender as in Duchamps addition of a mustache and goatee to Leonardos Mona Lisa in L.H.O.O.Q. (1919) (can a
mans face be projected as a womans face, or vice versa), to projections in mirrors
(where the affirmation of symmetry through inversion also marks their incongruence insofar as they are not superimposable), to the transformations by projection
entailed in the verbal domain (visible for instance, in Duchamps conflation of
systems of declension and conjugation in his word play). These projections in The
Large Glass entail the representation of the bride and the bachelors broken down to
viscera, to parts of machines (which are mechanical and chemical, below and electrical, above), thus shifting the regime of allusions away from human anatomy or
physiology towards a descriptive geometry that traces the active encounters and
collisions of dynamic forces.
Lyotard contends that the plastic problematic of The Large Glass is that of projections, which are postulated and treated in different ways in the two halves of
the work. Although the top and bottom sections of The Large Glass are like two mirrors joined together at a hinge, the images seen in these mirrors are not placed on
the same plane and do not function according to the same principles. Thus the
upper and lower regions, those of the Bride and the Bachelors, occupy similar
and non-superimposable spaces [73]. The Brides domain in the upper part of the

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Glass represents the projection of an unpresentable entity, since her four-dimensional model is untranslatable in perceptual space. She is a virtual entity, a geometrical fiction based on a postulate, that predicates the transposition of a fourdimensional entity into a three-dimensional space, which is projected in turn on
the two-dimensional plane of the glass. The domain of the Bride thus emerges as
the sphere of conceptual operations whose abstract character escapes the purview
of visual perception. By contrast, the lower Bachelor region is treated according to
the procedures of Italian perspective that govern the projection of three-dimensional objects onto two-dimensional surfaces. However, the production of this
three-dimensional effect is undermined by the transparency of the glass which
does not allow the eye to traverse it in order to explore its virtual space since it
shows real objects behind it. Consequently, the viewers eye is thrown back on its
own activity of seeing preempting its ability to lose itself in virtual objects. Thus
Lyotard suggests that Duchamp, while relying on perspectivist projection, redirects the works transformative potential undermining the referential function of
the glass (its reality-effect). What is notable about Lyotards approach is that he
uncovers in the mechanisms of projection that subtend The Large Glass a moment
of disruption, when the seamlessness of projective machination encounters resistance, bounds back on itself and collapses thereby bringing into view the position
of the observer. First reduced to an object of the viewers gaze, as a function of
a system of projection based on the procedures of Italian perspective, the work
rebounds on the viewer, undermining his or her position as subject and seer by
showing what it means to be seen. Challenging the subject/object dichotomy that
has governed not just the discourse of philosophy, but that of art as well, Lyotard
suggests that the experience of art endangers and undermines the mastery of the
subject by recasting and transforming the viewers agency into an object of the
works projective mechanisms.
Machines/Machinations
Lyotards analysis of the machine refers to Franz Reuleauxs definition of a machine
as a combination of resisting bodies assembled in such a manner and with certain
determined motions, so that the mechanical forces of nature are obliged to do
the work.16 However, the machine is also a trap set for the forces of nature, insofar
16

Lyotards concept of the machine refers to Franz Reuleauxs definition in Kinematics: Fundamental
Principles of a General Theory of Machines (1875), which he privileges over Georges Canguilhems
interpretation in Machine et organisme, La Connaissance de la vie (1952).

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as it constitutes an apparatus that lets us overturn relations of force [77]. Thus

Lyotards reading of the machine quickly moves from mechanics to the realm of
machination. Neither an instrument nor a weapon, a machination is a ruse, artifice, or ploy that relies on a trick. It works by capturing and exploiting natural
forces, but it plays a trick on them, for although it is less strong than they are it can
dominate them thus generating a logical conundrum: that the less strong should
be stronger than what is stronger [77]. He observes that the Bachelor machines in
The Large Glass partake of this unconscious of cunning implied in the invention of
mechanisms (ibidem), marking their inherent predisposition to machination that
modern technical thinking has silenced in its inordinate drive for the domination of nature. Moreover, he goes on to extend the purview of the machine and its
cunning machinations to encompass the strategies and operations of Duchamps
modes of discourse.
For Lyotard, the machinations in the mechanical realm that serve to harness the
energies of the physical world manifest something like a rhetorical force whose correlative can be found in the dynamics of the sophistry of the Greek pre-Socratics.
Lyotard ascribes this mechanical logic to the rhetorical exercises of the pre-Socratics
in which the production of every discourse entails the production of an opposing
discourse, in a rigorously parallel manner, but leading to the opposite conclusion
[83]. These duplex, or, rather, duplicitous speeches, called dissoi logoi, scandalized
philosophers such as Aristotle, because they rendered the weakest thesis the strongest. The movement and countermovement of these double discourses undo the
conventional logic of philosophy reducing the philosopher to a state of incongruence [89]. Revealing and reveling in the machinations, indeed the ploys, that may
underlie the rhetorical force of ancient philosophical discourse, Lyotard gleefully
sets Sophists against philosophers, the dissimulators against the assimilators, the
artists against the reasoners, and the Bachelor machines against industrial mechanics. The strategic deployment of these machinations aims to disorganize and thus
foil the possible emergence of any totalizing and unifying machine whether in the
area of technology or of language or of politics [85].17 Lyotards playful exercise
in pagan sophistry extends to and disturbs the logic of specular operations thus
questioning the very apparatus that ostensibly replicates and makes identical. He
examines the mirror as a machine that is fed by the objects presented to it and
that produces other objects, reflected images and the looker as user of this machine
[87]. In so doing, he shows that the mirror is not just a duplicating machine but a
17

Lyotards privileging of the pagan gains further elaboration in his contemporaneously published philosophical works, Instructions paennes, Paris, Galile, 1977 and Rudiments paens, Paris,
UGE, coll. 10/18, 1977.

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duplicitous machine. Its cunning relies on the production of fidelity and infidelity together [117], a double game whose radical incongruence according to
Immanuel Kant undermines the very premises of speculative discourse.
Outwitting time, disrupting consciousness
Lyotard observed that Duchamps style in both his titles and his notes can be read
as forms of instruction inasmuch as they act like recipes, but also as descriptions, creating certain logical expectations and disrupting them in turn [141].18 For
instance, the title The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even [The Large Glass] indicates that something is happening or going to happen. It announces the possibility of an event, the laying bare whose advent is held out as the promise of the
story implicating the figures inscribed on the Glass. This eruption of the temporal
promise out of a narrative construed as a premise takes place against other temporal incongruities that risk logical scandal. Lyotard noted that being a bachelor is
an on-going condition, whereas the bride is temporally bound, existing only for
a day and night, between the states of virgin and wife [149]. The staged facticity of
the logical presentation and clauses of Given: 1) The Waterfall 2) The Illuminating Gas
does away with the narrative in favor a proof- like structure. The title holds out
the promise of a hypothetical proposition or implication, even as this implication
remains suspended from its future problematic creating a logical conundrum.
Noting the transfer of the narrative function to the visible scene of Given, Lyotard
concludes: If a story is told here, it is no longer to the reader; its to the voyeur.
The story is no longer written the story is virtual [173]. The temporal and logical projections staged by the titles set up the illusion of verbal and visual forms of
reference only to question them in turn.
Lyotard goes on to argue that this play of projections in The Large Glass is also at
work in Given coupling these two works together in a circuit of transformations.
These works mark the passage from the ascetic and critical plastic formulation
[75] to a popular, pornographic, pagan formulation (ibidem), of one and the same
object. He detects in the blatant artificialism of Given, an attempt to provide yet
another perspective on the critique of the senses that The Large Glass inaugurated
through its perspectivist protocols:
18

He describes Duchamps style in terms of amphibology (a term he borrows from Kants Critique of Pure Reason) by marking its paradoxical character as a paralogism, according to Aristotle [141-143]. He comments, Its this amphibological form (neutral and deontic) that will be
in agreement with what there is of the paradox in the very logic of the enterprise. For a hingelogic, a hinge style (ibidem).

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Duchamp understands that in working on the 2-dimensional projections, even of 4-dimensional objects, he does not at all emancipate himself from the critique of the senses that is the
metaphysical obsession of the Platonic and Christian West he continues it. If with Given, he
affirms the representation-narration in all its humoristic force (anaglyphic humor), it is not
in order to denounce the illusions of the Cave, nor even the illusion of the Cave, but in order
to say: that projection is not worse than another one, it is just as good, because there are only
projections [205].

Given will return to the illusionism of the visible, not in order to denounce it, but
in order to ironically affirm it, thereby claiming its necessity even as its rationale
is reduced to contingency. He concludes that what Duchamp puts into perspective
is the constative that there are only projections, whether good, bad or indifferent.
But how can two works that are supposedly linked together look so radically different? The Glass has been described as belonging to the realm of apparition, since
it is conceptual, speculative and virtual, rather than to the realm of appearance,
the realm to which the embodied, material incarnation of Given belongs, staged
in the modality of a peep show.19 Lyotard addresses this apparent disconnect in
the viewing experience of the spectator in terms of an analysis of its temporal
implications. Referring to Duchamps Cols alits (Bedridden Mountains; 1959), which
puns in French on causality, Lyotard points to the fact that Duchamp completed
the abstract schematism of the Glass by introducing figuration into the image in
the guise of an after-thought. Duchamps hook up of the Bachelor Apparatus to a
power pole and the introduction of the faint outlines of a landscape of hills, which
is also reprised in the bottom part of the Bride section of the Glass, generates a radical collision between two systems of artistic representation. This belated return
to figuration inscribed in the Glass explicitly alludes to the insolent landscapism
[145] and hidden role of electricity in Given on which he was working on in secret at
that time. The inscription of the figurative and illusionist landscape of Given into
the Glass couples these works together, but the apparent contingency of their association serves to mark their fundamental disjunction. What brings these works
together is their capacity for disruption, when the seamlessness of their machinations in the respective realms of appearance and apparition encounters resistance,
bounds back on itself, and collapses. These machinations, transformations and
collapses attest to attempts to outwit consciousness through the confusion and
disruption of both the visual and temporal registers.
19

Duchamp elaborates the terms apparition and appearance in his notes in Duchamp du signe,
120-122.

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Duchamps reintroduction of the landscape in Given implies bringing back

and thus seemingly returning to what he had attempted to get away from in the
Glass. But in bringing the figurative landscape back was he only bringing forward
something that had already been there given that he was working on glass and
not canvas? It is useful to keep in mind that Duchamp had designated The Large
Glass as a delay in glass indicating that the term delay was used precisely to
avoid allusions to painting. The introduction of delay brings into play a temporal
dimension that interrupts and forestalls the immediacy and gratification of the
viewers gaze. Temporal considerations intervene to disrupt and retard the advent
of vision in The Large Glass postponing its emergence as an event. In the case of
Given, the viewer-now-become-voyeur no longer disposes of a temporal interval.
Instead of being slowed down by the intelligence required to penetrate the glass,
the voyeurs eye gains full access all at once, in the pitiless immediacy of an instant,
like that of a photographic exposure. Pondering on the significance of the connection of these works, Lyotard suggests that Duchamps corpus as a whole can be
inscribed in the great temporal hinge between an event that happens at once too
late and too soon and the gaze that tries to seize it:
That is, the laying bare: before it, the body is hidden from the gaze: after it, it is exposed to
it. It is the instant of transformation or metamorphosis of this into this after. It is graspable
only as this limit. So: two solutions. That of the Glass, where the gaze comes always too
soon, because the event is late, the corpus remaining to be stripped without end. With that
of Given, its the gaze that arrives too late, the laying bare is finished, there remains nudity.
Now makes a hinge between not yet and no longer [207].

Lyotard explores the temporal implications of The Large Glass and Given as a function of Duchamps strategies to outwit the logic of the gaze, be it by attempting to
elide the body as the object of its glare, hence its destiny of its persistent stripping,
or by deliberately exposing the body to its consuming grasp, thus reducing it to
a nudity so blatant as to court the opprobrium of obscenity. These figurations of
the gaze in The Large Glass and Given bring into play temporal scandals whose fundamental incongruence disrupt and postpone the intervention of the mind. The
problem for the viewer is that these mutually exclusive scenarios of temporality,
the not yet and the no longer are hinged together in the now, understood

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as a temporal present that outwits the order of consciousness.20 This dilemma

implied in the experience of the viewer of Duchamps works (who finds him or
herself outwitted and thus stripped of the norms of judgment by the intelligence
implied in the advent and event of the work) becomes for Lyotard an important
speculative and philosophical resource. It will enable him to postulate in his later
writings an understanding of the work of art as an event, that is, a temporal intervention which is at once too late and too soon, but whose logical incongruence
will continue to fuel its potential for happening.21 Moreover, insofar as Duchamps
interventions take on the character of an event they do so in a modality that will
stage the possibility of the postmodern, understood not as development in historical chronology but as a temporal incongruence that operates according to the
paradox of the future anterior or the postmodern: Hence the fact that the work
or the text have the character of an event; hence also, they always come too late
for their author, or, what amounts to the same thing, their being put into work,
their realization always begins too soon, suggesting that they would have to be
understood according to the paradox of the future anterior or the postmodern.22
And in the philosophical domain, Lyotards explorations of the temporal and logical incongruences that pervade Duchamps works will open the way to his later
elaborations of the notion of the sublime that culminate in his reading of Kant in
Lessons on the Analytic of the Sublime [1991] (1994).23
Gesture and commentary
Having examined key moments in Lyotards engagement with Duchamps
work, how are we to understand his critical intervention? What emerges most
potently and poignantly in Lyotards analysis in Duchamps TRANS/formers is his
20

21

22

23

Lyotards later elaborations of Duchamps plastic gamble, which he associates with the genre of
the Vanitas as compared to Barnett Newmans Annunciations, can be seen in Newman: The
Instant, in The Inhuman, 80.
Tomiche notes that Lyotards analysis of the functioning of the work of art is underlined by his
analogy to the psychic apparatus, which shifts from an initial account of forces to phrasing, see
Lyotard and /on Literature, 161.
For Lyotards formulation and critique of the temporal paradoxes of postmodernism, see Answering the Question: What is Postmodernism?, trans. R. Durand, in The Postmodern Condition: A
Report on Knowledge, trans. G. Bennington and B. Massumi, Minneapolis and London, University
of Minnesota Press, 1997, 81.
Rodolphe Gasch has shown that Lyotards sublime does not imply the aesthetization of philosophical thought, since it is an indication of philosophical thinkings elemental linkage to the
affect of the possibility of non-Being, in The Sublime, Ontologically Speaking, Yale French
Studies, 99, Jean-Franois Lyotard: Time and Judgment, 125.

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problematization of the relation of artistic gesture and commentary, a subject

whose development will continue to gain theoretical articulation in his later
works. Disputing, and indeed, laying aside the hegemonic mastery of philosophical discourse and argumentation over its artistic or literary objects, he questions
the works debt to its commentator, as traditional protocols of interpretation
would warrant. Rather, in a fundamental reversal of subject/object relations and
agency, he posits the commentators obligation to the work: He had incurred a
debt to the work, in every case, due to the fact that by its very existence as a way
of being in space, in time, in form, etc. it had come before the elaboration of these
questions. Due to the fact that it has been his master in these questions. He owed
it thought, he was in love with it, he would give it what he did not have.24 He
repositions the philosopher as subject to the gestures of the work, which it must
suffer in order to discharge his or her supposed obligation to the works modes of
presentation. The work coaxes and provokes the eruption of thought, a gesture
that commands the commentator to give what he or she does not possess, namely,
the words to say this gesture.25 But it would be wrong to regard this debt of style
as a debt that philosophy merely owes to art. Rather, and in a far more radical
sense, Lyotard suggests that this debt of style is a debt that philosophy owes to
thought insofar as it emerges from expression. Instead of presuming the priority and ultimate autonomy of thought from expression, Lyotard contends that
it is thought that is indebted to expression. If the debt of style cannot be settled by a mere engagement with art or by the adoption of an artistic style this is
because the question of style brings to the fore the fundamental debt that thought
incurs to expression. This is why the philosopher cannot discharge his or her debt
to thought without taking into account and doing justice to this affair of style.
Lyotard summons philosophers to write rather than merely think, daring
them to begin to think thought as work and no longer as argument.26 To think
of thought as a work of art rather than as an argument implies asking philosophical writing to reflect on its language, gestures, and forms of expression, questioning the propriety of its subservience to norms even at the risk of expropriation.27

24
25
26
27

Jean-Franois Lyotard, Karel Appel. Un geste de couleur / Karel Appel. A Gesture of Colour, Leuven, Leuven University Press, 2009, 35-37.
Op. cit., 37.
Op. cit., 55.
Rodolphe Gasch comments that Lyotards task is not to save thinking by thinking towards
a new metaphysical experience, but rather to thinkingly address the evils of thinking, while
recognizing that no enlightening critique can free thinking from its potential for the worst,
in Saving the Honor of Thinking, The Honor of Thinking: Critique, Theory, Philosophy, Stanford,
Stanford University Press, 2007, 294.

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Interrogating its conditions of possibility, it must take into account that the attestation brought to the referential function of discourse by philosophy completely
conceals from him what is also gestural in this discourse28 in order to retrieve
new forms of expression and thus meaning for philosophy. For thought to be a
work of art implies allowing for its unfolding as an event whose knowledge and
destiny has not been predetermined in advance but one that would emerge belatedly and happenstance through expression. Its conceptual advent postponed, it
would keep happening and making things happen. What Lyotard understood
about Duchamp was that his initial critique of art as visual experience did not
simply end with his efforts to move towards a conceptual understanding of art
as embodied in The Large Glass. Rather this move towards the conceptual implied
and ultimately mandated a return to visual expression, as a way of preempting
the consolidation of the conceptual, by lapsing into a form of ironic visuality that
would continue to fuel and drive the transformative potential of both works.
This contingent necessity paradoxically scripted in the expression that drives
the fate of thought is one that appears to have been already surreptitiously
inscribed into Lyotards life through the temporal destiny implied in his name:
I feel that something of my name is written in my life: trop tard (too late). My students
came up with this joke about me, without malice, though, saying, mieux Lyotard que
jamais (better late Lyotard than never). I found that this rang true in a certain sense And
so I came late to writing, and much thank God had happened to help me make sense of
what ought to be thought through.29

It would seem that it is better to be late, or belated, since Lyotards delay in coming to philosophical writing enabled him to reflect on its conditions of possibility, making sense of what ought to be thought and how. This resistance to speed
marked his reluctance to accede to prior forms of thought and argumentation.
More importantly, it underlined his unwillingness to compromise his writings
by giving way to forms of conceptual schematization necessitated to facilitate the
reduction of his ideas for mass consumption. In retrospect, it is this tendency to
be late in coming to writing that may explain Lyotards particular predilection
for Duchamp (who labeled himself an engineer of lost time, ingnieur du temps
28
29

Op. cit., 53.

Jean-Franois Lyotard and Gilbert Larochelle, That Which Resists, After All, Philosophy Today,
Winter 1992, 402.

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perdu).30 Duchamps TRANS/formers reclaimed Duchamp from negation and the

much trumpeted end of art by showing how he challenged the meaning of the aesthetic through an ironic strategy whose transformative potential restituted to art
its capacity, not to be, but to happen, and make things happen, precisely because
it could no longer be defined.31 This discovery of arts transformative potential, as
an event whose happening would have no recourse to a prior concept, would come
too late and/or begin too soon, figuring Lyotards later attempts to invent possibilities for thought that would make it happen, only at the risk, or rather promise,
that it would no longer be able to recognize or claim itself as such.

30
31

Marcel Duchamp, Ingnieur du temps perdu: Entretiens avec Pierre Cabanne, Paris, Pierre Belfond,
1977, 19.
For an expansion of the notion of transformer to Lyotards corpus as a whole, see Les Transformateurs Lyotard, eds. C. Enaudeau, J.-F. Nordman, J.-M. Salankis and F. Worms, Paris, Sens & Tonka
& Cie, 2008.