Allen Ruppersberg The Mystery Of Nobokov's Room and No, Sir, My Library Is Not Yours, 1999
Specifications
Two-sided hand-cut wooden puzzle in cardboard box
Cardboard box, 27 x 35.5 x 4 cm
Each puzzle is incomplete, totally randomly.
The number of pieces is more or less equivalent to the capacity of the box they are tidy.
Each box has a different size and origin (for example: old puzzle boxes or chocolate boxes found by Allen Ruppersberg on the flea markets).
Each box is stamped, signed and numbered and contains a stamped Major Error card.
Production
Edition 21/50
Edition of 50 signed and numbered copies
Each puzzle is unique.
Published in 1999 by Catherine Pavlovic and Adon Peres
Since the early 70s, Allen Ruppersberg has been making artworks that in many ways function as puzzles, as to say a collection of elements arranged to make up a meaningful whole. It is not a coincidence if Allen Ruppersberg has decided to directly work on puzzles since one of his principle resides in transposing and reusing his own previous works or some of their fragments.
In choosing to make puzzles, Allen Ruppersberg allows the audience, the puzzler, to take on his role as an artist. This way, the puzzler must glean amongst the pieces provided by Ruppersberg in order to assemble the whole picture.
As an addition to the idea of assembling, associated with puzzles, is the notion of absence. Substraction is an operation commonly used by Ruppersberg and The Mystery Of Nobokov's Room and No, Sir, My Library Is Not Yours is no exception. Regarding this artwork, a handful of pieces have been randomly removed from the box making difficult if not impossible to assemble the puzzle.
Every The Mystery Of Nobokov's Room and No, Sir, My Library Is Not Yours puzzle are therefore incomplete but they all offer to reconstitute two different pictures, one on the front side and the other on the back side of the pieces. The number of pieces is proportional to the box size on which the two pictures are pasted. The boxes have been purchased by Allen Ruppersberg at flea markets. Each one has a proper size and a specific origin.
7.09 x 9.84 x 1.97 in ( 18,5 x 25 x 5,5 cm )
9.84 x 12.2 x 1.97 in ( 25 x 31 x 5,5 cm )
Poster : 35.83 x 28.74 in, book : 10.63 x 8.27 in
12.99 x 11.81 x 4.33 in ( 33 x 30 x 11 cm )
Sign 21.65 x 35.43 in, each poster 22.05 x 13.78 in
Each poster 57.87 x 35.43 in
9.06 x 6.3 x 1.97 in ( 23,5 x 16,5 x 5,5 cm )