de ou par Marcel Duchamp ou Rrose Sélavy (La Boîte-en-valise)

[2][3]Launched in 1935 and sold from 1941 by subscription in the United States, the box-in-a-suitcase is based on the idea of the condensed universe of the boîte surréaliste and a cabinet of curiosities as a portable museum.

[citation needed] The work consists of a brown leather carrying case[4] (the prospectus describes it as a "leather pull-out box"), 40 x 37.5 x 8.2 cm, containing 69 reproductions of the major works by Duchamp, including many photographs, lithographs and miniature replicas of ready-mades like Fountain, and reduced-sizes models on Rhodoïd (cellulose acetate) such as The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even.

The first series, numbered I/X through XX/XX, (known as luxury editions) contain an original work by Duchamp on the inside lid of the case.

In 1935 Duchamp wrote in a letter to Katherine Dreier: "I want to make, sometime, an album of approximately all the things I produced.

It contains replicas of Duchamp's works mounted in a wooden frame that slide out in two wings, steadied by brass clips.

The works in the deluxe edition consist of a plywood box, fitted inside a leather-covered suitcase.

[13][12] Duchamp eventually tired of creating the boxes himself and hired assistants to aid in their construction, including Xenia Cage and Joseph Cornell.

[citation needed] Benjamin himself, on the other hand, in 1937 in his diary noted: "Saw Duchamp this morning, same café on the Boulevard St. Germain.

[15] The first series, A, is numbered I/XX though XX/XX and is a deluxe edition containing an original work of art, mounted in the lid of the box.