One of the more intriguing items in Te Papa’s art collections is Boîte-en-valise. While Te Papa won’t put up a pic of it on their site because of ‘copyright restrictions,’ you can take your pick of over 50 images elsewhere – including ones from the Australian National Gallery, the Tate and MoMA - via Google here. Boîte-en-valise and two other works by Duchamp were gifted to Te Papa by Judge Julius Isaacs in the early eighties. For more about this gift see Marcus Moore's interesting account.
Now French artist Mathieu Mercier is to make Boîte-en-valise into a pop-up book to be published this week by Anabet. Mercier was given access to their copy of the edition by the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, and permission to go ahead with the project by the Duchamp family. The book will acknowledge Duchamp’s role in its title "The 'Boîte-en-valise' of either Marcel Duchamp or RRose Sélavy by Mathieu Mercier."
Image: Duchamp popping up at the Philadelphia Museum
