Un coup de dés jamais nabolira le hasard (Sculpture) (A Throw of the Dice Will Never Abolish

Chance) is a close copy of the 1914 edition of French symbolist Stéphane Mallarmés 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 Pichlers version of Mallarmés 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.



Michalis Pichler is an artist operating on both sides of the imaginary border between visual art

and literature and one of the founders and organizers of Miss Read and Conceptual Poetics Day.

A monograph of his work was co-published by Spector Books and Printed Matter, Inc