t seems to us that in this book artist Sam Samore and “failed” NY poet Max Henry have made a case study of the French poet Mallarmé’s UN COUP DE DÉS JAMAIS N’ABOLIRA LE HASARD. Sam had some dice made up with words engraved on them (love, fear, with , lust, etc.) instead of numbers and Max made phrases by tossing them. Their Case study pretends to scientific objectivity, but in fact they take Mallarmé’s sense of serendipity quite literally. Too bad they haven’t (yet?) developed an interest in the Marquis de Sade. They might take Justine for a life-style recommendation. But for now they prefer surrealism to sadism. Mallarmé would have loved their work, of course. So do we. Kenzo once put out a hundred-dollar red silk neck tie with the famous lines from Baudelaire’s Invitation au Voyage printed on it in white: luxe, calme, et volupté. Why not jewelry with these wonderful dice? One can easily imagine cuff links and earrings and finger rings derived from Max’s and Sam’s dice on sale at the MoMA. You could just roll a handful of them out in the morning to select the words of the day: cash in the left ear, pain in the right ear, love on the pinky, etc…
Richard Dailey (Paris)

Sam Samore
38 ruminations by Max Henry
Published September 2003

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