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Recently a photographer asked Duchamp to sign his autograph book. He explained to the artist that, since those he photographs are his hosts, it was a sort of a guest book in reverse. Duchamp whipped out a pen and, writing backwards, jotted down his signature in a perfect mirror image. For what it is worth, this was also Leonardo da Vinci's favorite device, in his notebooks, for keeping his secrets to himself.
* Composed of 125 items purchased en masse by Mrs. William Sisler, it will travel this month to Houston's Contemporary Arts Museum, then to the Baltimore Museum of Art, Brandeis University's Rose Art Museum, Minneapolis' Walker Art Center, the Yale University Art Gallery, and then to London's Tate Gallery.