A donation of books on Marcel Duchamp

The Abattoirs Library has recently received an exceptional donation dedicated to Marcel Duchamp. Comprising around a hundred volumes, this collection enriches our holdings in the history of modern and contemporary art. It will enable readers, students, researchers and anyone with an interest in the subject to deepen their understanding of a major 20th-century artist, whose work continues to challenge the boundaries of art, language, play and thought.

This donation was made by Lyne Limouse, a visual artist, art historian, teacher and author, whose career reflects a long-standing and profound commitment to artistic creation. Trained at the Toulouse School of Fine Arts, she went on to study art history at the University of Toulouse-Le Mirail, where she devoted her early research to Romanesque sculpture in the Languedoc region. Her work as a visual artist developed particularly from the 1970s onwards, centring on collage and a series of works entitled *Césures*, exhibited in several cultural venues and museums, including the Musée Ingres in Montauban. At the same time, she worked as an illustrator of literary works, notably those by Joe Bousquet, René Nelli and Alfred de Vigny.

From the 1980s onwards, Lyne Limouse taught art history at the École des Beaux-Arts in Castres and worked at the Castres Centre for Contemporary Art, where she ran courses and outreach programmes for teachers, students and the general public. It was within this educational context that her interest in Marcel Duchamp took shape. The courses she devoted to him, followed by her discovery of the original works held in Philadelphia, fuelled a personal research project that would continue for many years.

Her relationship with Duchamp took on a form that was at once scholarly, artistic and poetic. From 1993 onwards, she embarked on an imaginary ‘correspondence’ with the artist—a fellow chess player—which culminated in 2001 in the exhibition Pièces à conviction at the Castres Centre for Contemporary Art. She subsequently published several essays and artist’s books devoted to Duchamp, including Le buisson de given, d’Exactitude, selon Marcel Duchamp, Maria Caïssa King Marcel and La position. Marcel Duchamp, maître de la félure et des issues. Her book Échéphile, devoted to Marcel Duchamp and chess, combines drawings, watercolours, game scores and reflections on the Duchampian universe.

Through this donation, Lyne Limouse is bequeathing to the library a significant part of her intellectual and artistic partnership with Marcel Duchamp. The library extends its warmest thanks to her for this generous gesture.