"Adieu, Police!" published in Phantômas, no. 2
Marcel Broodthaers
Belgian, 1924–1976
April 1954
A letterpress-printed journal issue by Marcel Broodthaers presenting his text “Adieu, Police!” within the self-published review Phantômas, an early effort to treat poetry as a carefully designed, object-like publication.
The pale blue cover catches the eye with scattered, ornamental floral initials and an elegant cursive “Phantômas” beside a solitary numeral “2,” giving the little book a restrained yet playful presence.
This small periodical marks Broodthaers’s early experiment in making the printed page into an artwork—foregrounding typography, serial publication, and the book as a conceptual object that prefigures his later turn from poet to influential conceptual artist.
Medium
Journal, letterpress printed
Dimensions
page (each): 7 5/8 × 5 3/8" (19.4 × 13.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Dr. Samuel Mandel (by exchange)
Accession
1616.2015
Palette
Exhibitions
