the blind man
The Blind Man (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2017)
The Blind Man and rongwrong were seminal New York Dada magazines edited and published by Marcel Duchamp, Henri-Pierre Roché, and Beatrice Wood in 1917. This facsimile edition, introduced by Sophie Seita, celebrates the 100th anniversary of their publication. The box set also includes a two-colour offset reproduction of Beatrice Wood’s poster for The Blind Man’s Ball (1917) and a letterpress facsimile of Man Ray’s The Ridgefield Gazook (1915). Translations of the French texts by Elizabeth Zuba accompany the facsimile reprints.
The Blind Man and rongwrong were part of a network of little magazines that introduced audiences to avant-garde movements in art and literature; they featured contributions of poetry, prose, and visual art by Mina Loy, Louise Norton, Robert Carlton Brown, Erik Satie, Walter Arensberg, Francis Picabia, Alfred Stieglitz, and others. The Blind Man was the first print publication to circulate an image of Duchamp’s Fountain (photographed by Stieglitz) after its rejection from the first annual exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, presenting a public challenge to the accepted definition of art during this time.
Praise:
‘Seita’s knowledge of these magazines, and their imbrication in the ecologies of New York’s cultures of the new, is compendious. Her writing is sharp and sets these artefacts vibrating. This box is to be a very exciting thing.’
—Sarah Hayden
Events:
“I see, said the blind man”: An Evening of Readings and Discussion’, at Anita Rogers Gallery, New York, 8 May 2018
‘Marcel Duchamp, The Blind Man, and New York Dada: Institutional Critique and Editorial Practices’, with Mary Ann Caws, Thierry de Duve, David Joselit, Center for the Humanities, CUNY, New York, 24 Apr 2018.
Launch, at Printed Matter, New York, 12 Jan 2018.
Press:
The Blind Man reviewed in Journal of Artist’s Books
The Blind Man reviewed by the Brooklyn Rail
The Blind Man reviewed by Douglas Messerli on The Project for Innovative Poetry Blog
The Blind Man reviewed in Hyperallergic (Jan 2018)
The Blind Man reviewed in Hyperallergic (Feb 2018)
The Blind Man reviewed by James Hoff
The Blind Man named among Best Art Books of 2017 in The New York Times
Reviewed in the Swedish Sydsvenskan (2018), print.