Marcel''s Masterpiece: How a Toilet Shaped the History of Art, written and illustrated by Jeff Mack. Henry Holt and Company, Macmillan. Raincoast. 2022. $26.99 ages 4 and up

 

"... TOILET?!

They saw it. 

They didn't like it. 

IT'S AWFUL!
GET RID OF IT!
BUT ALL ART IS WELCOME!

So they hid it." 

Earlier this year I shared Jeff Mack's Art Is Everywhere: A Book about Andy Warhol (Henry Holt, 2021). This is an appealing companion book about another artist, Marcel Duchamp. An advertisement for a Fancy Art Show was all the impetus Marcel needed to plan a new curiosity. He created a piece of art using a urinal as his entry for the show. In doing so, he also created a stir in the art world - just what he had planned to do. 

Using a 'readymade', as Dada artists are given to do, Marcel turned the urinal upside down and called it a fountain. He signed it R. Mutt 1917 and entered it in the art show, much to the delight of the organizers. When they unwrapped it, they were astonished and appalled. They tried hiding it. It did not stay hidden. The hue and cry in newspaper reports were contradictory. Again, it did exactly as Marcel had hoped it would do. It got people talking about art, and thinking about it, too. 

"Can a toilet really be art? Maybe the real art 
was Marcel's idea to call it art.

Anything is art if 
an artist says it is."

Jeff Mack uses the urinal to appeal to his young audience, and it works brilliantly. It will have readers snorting with laughter as they hear and share the 'punny' dialogue as he buys, creates, and has it displayed as art. His goal is to have patrons really consider what art is to each one of them. 

"They argued about it. 

A toilet is not really art. 
I will NOT let you go. 

I say it is art! 
And I really need to go bad!"

Yes, you read that right. There is much more! Potty humor, plentiful puns and other wordplay exist in abundance. Oh, so clever it is. As it will with its young intended audience, it gave me a much clearer understanding of the Dada 'movement'.

To add to the enjoyment and encourage full attention to the illustrations, the art was created 'with acrylic and watercolor paint, digital "ink", torn paper, cardboard, fabric, tape, string, wooden boxes, cotton balls, and whatever else I could find around the house'. The design is fascinating and characteristic of Dada art, which is fully explained in additional matter.