![Marcel Duchamp. *Box in a Valise (From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy)*. 1935–41. Leather valise containing miniature replicas, photographs, color reproductions of works by Duchamp, and one "original" drawing [Large Glass, collotype on celluloid, 7 1/2 x 9 1/2" (19 x 23.5 cm)], 16 x 15 x 4" (40.7 x 38.1 x 10.2 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. James Thrall Soby Fund](/d/assets/W1siZiIsIjIwMjYvMDQvMDcvNWZ2Y3NsNWlha182MTVfYm94X2luX2FfdmFsaXNlXzIuanBnIl0sWyJwIiwiY29udmVydCIsIi1xdWFsaXR5IDkwIC1yZXNpemUgMjAwMHgyMDAwXHUwMDNlIl1d/615%20box-in-a-valise-2.jpg?sha=93c6bbaccdefafe4)
Artist, Marcel Duchamp: It’s a new form of expression for me. Instead of painting something, it was, use the reproduction of those paintings that I loved so much into a small, reduced form. I thought of the idea of a box in which they would be mounted, like in a small museum—portable museum, so to speak. And there it is.
Curator, Ann Temkin: The Box in a Valise is Duchamp’s autobiography, really, that he made when he was around 50 years old, reproducing 69 works of art at this miniature scale.
Curator, Michelle Kuo: And then he constructs this pop-out suitcase, and all of those works fit neatly inside this case. And then you can open it up and essentially play with it like a doll’s house.
This idea of painstakingly replicating his own works is something that is very quintessentially Duchamp. Some of them he traveled across the country so he can look at the original and study it, and then used intricate techniques to make photomechanical copies of them, but then he hand-paints them.
Curator, Ann Temkin: Like to make Fountain, the readymade urinal, he used first papier-mâché and then other materials to make this adorable miniature that would be true to the readymade urinal that he had just purchased at a plumbing supply store.
Artist, Wade Guyton: He seemed to spend a lot more time making the reproductions than the original. It’s almost like a gesture to the viewer—like the viewer needs the hand of the artist.