About this artwork
This book binding by Mary Reynolds, with design contributions by Marcel Duchamp, houses Raymond Queneau’s Loin de Rueil, a story about a constantly daydreaming young man. She repurposed test prints of one of Duchamp’s rotoreliefs—decorated discs meant to be spun on a turntable to create optical illusions—on each end page. This rotorelief design, entitled Corollles, was originally produced for the sixth edition of the Surrealist magazine Minotaure. Although this particular rotorelief is static, its graphics nonetheless evoke a sense of movement, spiraling like a daydreaming mind set adrift. The Surrealists placed great value in the creativity that can emerge from this dream-like state. Reynolds’s binding for Queneau’s novel reflects this mood as well as her response to it.
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Ryerson and Burnham Libraries Special Collections
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Artist
- Mary Reynolds
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Title
- Loin de Rueil (Skin of Dreams)
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Place
- Paris (Object made in:)
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Date
- 1944
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Medium
- Full red morocco binding with raised bands; author and title stamped in gold on spine; endpapers of trial proofs for Marcel Duchamp's 1935 cover of Minotaure; original paper covers bound in
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Dimensions
- H.: 19 cm (7 1/2 in.)
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Credit Line
- Mary Reynolds Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Libraries
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Reference Number
- 2024.858
Extended information about this artwork
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
