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May 2 2025

Remaking rules: artist interpretations of  “Un coup de dés”

Posted byThe University of Iowa LibrariesPosted inUncategorizedTags:, ,
Decorative image.

By Cecil Campbell, exhibition and engagement student lead for the Main Library Gallery.

Written by French Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé, “Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard” has confounded and inspired artists and poetry enthusiasts for over 128 years. The reason for this is attributed to the way the words in the poem are arranged as well as the words themselves. The poem tells the story of a shipwrecked sea captain, left to ponder his fate and brought face-to-face with the punishingly uncertain nature of existence.

While not the first, “Un coup de dés” is one of the more famous examples of concrete poetry. As defined by art collector Marvin Sackner, concrete poems are “those in which only letters and/or words are utilized to form a visual image.” “Un coup de dés” switches typefaces and font sizes, and words are scattered over large expanses of blank white space.

“Un coup de des jamais n’abolira le hasard” by Stéphane Mallarmé, as published in Cosmopolis (Magazine). Originally published in London, England, May 1897. Note the differing typefaces and font sizes for this poem, which is meant to be read across the gutter of the page. Photo: Sara Pinkham.

Mallarmé was one of the first poets to suggest that words on a page contain information beyond the ideas the words represent. How the words looked on the page also brought meaning. Indeed, many artists have taken inspiration from “Un coup de dés” by changing the visual aspects of the poem in some ways by altering not only the text but the physical material of the poem, like the interpretation below from Michalis Pichler, etched onto plexiglass panels. The clear medium calls extra attention to the negative space between the words and invites the viewer to meditate on the relationship between the words and the page.

Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard (SCULPTURE) by Michalis Pichler, 2008. Laser-etched plexiglass. Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries. Photo: Tim Schoon, University of Iowa Office of Strategic Communication.

An interpretation by German artist Ernest Fraenkel obliterates the text completely, drawing attention to the way that the words flow across the page by physically connecting them with red ink.

Les Dessins Trans-conscients de Stéphane Mallarmé: à propos de la Typographie de Un Coup de Dés by Ernest Fraenkel, 1960. Ink on paper. Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries. Photo: Sara Pinkham.

 “Un coup de dés” continues to contribute to a long artistic tradition of breaking and remaking rules. It subverted conventions and has had readers debating the meaning of the poem for years. Artists and poets continue challenging viewers by obliterating the text of the poem, drawing over it, cutting the words out, and printing it on glass, on literal dice, or on vinyl instead of paper. Much like the chaotic nature of chance itself, it invites artists, readers, and fellow poets to reckon with the true nature of poetry and art.

These materials and more can be viewed in the Main Library Gallery’s spring 2025 exhibition, A Roll of the Dice: Symbolism in the Sackner Archive. It is free and open to the public through June 27, 2025. Learn more about the exhibit and the Main Library Gallery’s open hours at lib.uiowa.edu/gallery.