128. Salt Seller by Marcel Duchamp

Salt Seller is everything the titular enthusiast could desire. Originally entitled Marchand du sel, it contains firstly an English pun, supplied by the translator: ‘salt seller’ sounds the same as ‘salt cellar’. Secondly, the French title contains a sort of French Spoonerism (the transposition of elements of the phrase to form a new phrase). ‘Marchand du sel’, twisted around, is ‘Marcel Duchamp’, the author of the book. (Just take the ‘champ’ of ‘Duchamp’ and put it after the ‘Mar’ of ‘Marcel’, and the ‘cel’ of ‘Marcel’ and put it after the ’Du’ of ‘’Duchamp’ and you get ‘MarChamp Du cel’ – or ‘Marchand du cel’.)

Duchamp’s brand of subversion always leaned heavily towards the linguistic — his best known painting, the mustachio’d Mona Lisa, was, of course, subtitled ‘LHOOQ’, or ‘elle a chaud au cul’ (‘she has a hot ass’) — and Salt Seller is full of similar jokes, many in dubious taste, usually penned under the name of Duchamp’s female alter ego, the inscrutable Rrose Sélavy, whose name itself is a tortured pun, meaning both ‘Eros, c’est la vie’ (‘love, that’s life’) or ‘arroser la vie’ (‘make a toast to life’).

Consulted:
Brandon, Ruth: Surreal Lives: The Surrealists 1917-1945‎ (2000)
Kuenzli, Rudolf E., Naumann, Francis M.: Marcel Duchamp: Artist of the Century‎ (1989)