Object Description
The Green Box is a compendium [the BCMA received ninety-six (96)] of facsimiles notes, sketches, and studies that Marcel Duchamp made between 1912 and 1917 while planning The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), the work that would be the high point of his early career. He worked with professional printers to achieve meticulous reproductions; the papers, inks, and even torn edges exactly match the originals. Duchamp also acted as publisher, overseeing the distribution of an edition of three hundred, plus twenty deluxe copies (including this one) with original notes or drawings included. The contents of the specially designed cardboard box covered with green flocking have no fixed order—readers are expected to sift through on their own and puzzle out the documents’ meanings. Duchamp thought of The Large Glass and The Green Box as complementary creations, and he maintained that neither could be properly studied without examining the other.
