Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard (Sculpture)

Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard (Sculpture) (A Throw of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance) is a close copy of the 1914 edition of French symbolist Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem of the same name, but with all the words cut out by laser. Published sixteen years after the death of the poet, Un coup de dés became famous for its intimate combination of free verse and unusual typographic layout. The twenty-page-long poem anticipated the interest in graphic design and concrete poetry that emerged in the twentieth century.

The preface of Michalis Pichler’s version of Mallarmé’s masterpiece features the entire poem written as a block of text with each line separated by a slash ( / ). Twelve double spreads follow, with immaculately cut-out windows standing in for the text. As you turn the pages, numerous shadows are generated by the cut-outs.

The first edition of Michalis Pichler was published in 2008 and quickly sold out. This new edition makes the artist book accessible again.