"Adieu, Police!" published in Phantômas, no. 2

Marcel Broodthaers

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.

Palette

Art Terms

Letterpress Periodical Artist’s book Typography Graphic design Conceptual art

Exhibitions

Language of the Wall: Parisian Graffiti Photographed by Brassaï

1956

New Acquisitions: Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism

1941

Paris at War: 16 Gouaches by Bernard Lamotte

1940

Brassaï, 1899–1984: Memorial

1984