This work is based on a 1887 poem of the same name by French Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé. The poem was revolutionary for its unconventional layout, with widely spaced words, single sentences stretching across spreads, and multiple typefaces. In an homage to Mallarmé, Broodthaers took the poet’s innovation even further, obliterating the lines of the poem with thick, black bars, transforming it from a readable text into an abstract composition. Broodthaers stayed true to the original layout of the poem, only changing the word on the title page from “poème” to “image,” thus announcing that the written word had been replaced with abstract images. Broodthaers was a poet and bookseller until age 40, when he turned to visual art, gaining renown for a varied art practice that included paintings, performances, sound pieces, artist’s books, large-scale installations, and assemblages.