The most striking thing about the exhibition “Joseph
Cornell/Marcel Duchamp … in resonance” is its catalogue.[1]
Expertly designed and lavishly illustrated, it contains photographic
reproductions that are almost as good as being there. The book’s
eye-catching layout is matched by the meticulousness of its essays,
artists’ chronologies, and inventory of work. What makes the
catalogue truly noticeable, however, is its heft. While 344 pages
may not earn it phone book status, the catalogue is nevertheless a
major tome, one whose size is in contrast to the exhibition it
elucidates. For “in resonance” is an intimate show, occupying a
single gallery at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It delineates the
correspondence, both personal and artistic, between these two
singular artists, who also happened to be friends, and, by comparing and
contrasting works by both men, the show strikes some telling
parallels.
“In resonance” is, in short, a specialist’s show given a major
treatment.

The centerpiece—indeed, the raison d’être
—of “in resonance” is
a collection of Duchamp-related
ephemera, the so-called Duchamp Dossier, gathered by
Joseph Cornell (1903–1972) and discovered in
his home after his death. The Dossier is being exhibited here for
the first time, having been given to the museum by the Joseph and
Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation in 1990. It contains the
odds-and-ends of a friendship: crumpled dry cleaning bills, a
coaster for Trommer’s malt beer (“Taste … and compare!”), receipts
from Bloomingdale’s, invitations from the Julian Levy Gallery,
thank-you notes from Duchamp’s girlfriend Mary Reynolds, and