ABSTRACT
How does an architect write about an artist? In May 1937 an innovative visual essay, part of a series entitled Design-Correlation, was published in the American monthly magazine Architectural Record.1 The essay by the Austrian-American architect Frederick Kiesler was a close analysis of a seminal work by French artist Marcel Duchamp entitled The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même), 191523.2 Composed on two large glass panes arranged vertically on a frame and using materials such as lead foil, fuse wire, and dust, the work is better known as the Large Glass. It combines meticulously plotted drawings in perspective, as well as forms deriving from chance operations and is accompanied by a set of notes that allude to an allegorical amorous exchange between a ‘Bride’ and her ‘Bachelors’ (fig. 1.1).3
