Duchamp’s Anémic Cinéma, a film collaboration with the artist Man Ray (American, 1890–1976) and the cinematographer Marc Allégret (French, 1900–1973), is a seven-minute silent animation in which nine disks (four of which are on view here) inscribed with humorous puns and alliterative phrases rotate in slow motion, alternating with another series of disks bearing abstract concentric patterns. The effect is nearly hypnotic, as reading converges with optical sensation. Duchamp was interested in the malleability of language; here he offered a fanciful alternative to our conventional way of reading, one that invites expanded meanings and free association among words and forms. The title of the work is itself a humorous treatment of language: anémic is an anagram of cinéma.