THE BLIND MAN by Marcel Duchamp, Beatrice Wood, & Henri-Pierre Roché, edited by Sophie Seita

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A facsimile edition of two 1917 magazines, The Blind Man (Issues 1 & 2, April-July 1917) and Rongwrong, edited by Marcel Duchamp, Henri Pierre Roché and Beatrice Wood, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of their publication. Housed in a custom box along with an offset reproduction of Beatrice Wood's poster for the Blind Man's Ball, a letterpress reproduction of The Ridgefield Gazook (1915), a scholarly introduction by Sophie Seita, and translations of the French texts by Elizabeth Zuba, these important little magazines of the early twentieth century were part of a network of proto-Dada, modernist, and other avant-garde New York salons and publications that introduced audiences to Dada in the United States. 

While The Blind Man itself has only fairly recently garnered critical interest from artists and scholars, the second issue of The Blind Man featured what is perhaps one of the best known conceptual artworks of all time: Duchamp’s urinal "Fountain," photographed by Alfred Stieglitz. The issue’s cover featured—no less famous—Duchamp’s "Broyeuse De Chocolat (Chocolate Grinder)," often considered to have initiated Duchamp’s move towards an anti-art aesthetic. Putting the "Fountain" and "Chocolate Grinder" back into their original publication context, a print community in which editors and contributors defended the scandal caused by Duchamp’s public challenge to the accepted definition of art, will help contemporary readers appreciate the radicalism of Duchamp’s work inside a magazine and avant-garde community that was deeply engaged with the issues of its time. This facsimile reprint will be complimented by an extensive essay by Sophie Seita, contextualizing The Blindman/The Blind Man and rongwrong within the New York Dada and modernist magazine ecology, as well as a letterpress print of The Ridgefield Gazook (1915) and an offset poster for The Blind Man's Ball, designed by Beatrice Wood.