Eau & Gaz: a tous les Étages (Water & Gas: On All Floors)

Berchem: Galerie Ronny van de Velde, 2015. First edition. Hardcover. Very good condition. Large Quarto. 172 [3]pp. Original brown cloth with white lettering on mounted blue rectangle of cover, black facsimile signature on spine. Photo-illustrated endpapers. Frontispiece photograph. Designed by Marcel Duchamp (Layout) and Robert Lebel (Book). Laid in two facsimile documents (pp. 38 + 48) and invitation to exhibition in October 2015. Duchamp publication on the occasion of the 2015 exhibition at Gallery Ronny van de Velde at the Zeedijk in Knokke-Zoute. Beautifully illustrated with an abundance of color and b/w reproductions of Duchamp's art.

"Based around a crucial design for the legendary "Large Glass," this collection offers a broad overview of Marcel Duchamp's multiples and graphic works. When in the 1920s he bids farewell to art in order to fully devote himsel to the game of chess, he had already assured for the museal future of his most important works by seeing that they were acquired by a few loyal collectors with philantropic bent. His rare subsequent interventions in the domain of art have an almost clandestine character; they are also in line with his reputation as an inverterate troublemaker and true keeper of the dada faith. The installation "Etant donnés," which he had for years worked on insecret, would upon its unveiling after the artist's death eqyally serve to evoke the necessary degree of scandal." (Intro).

Text in French and English. Light wear along edges of binding. (Inventory #: 55150)