Marcel Duchamp created The Green Box as a schematic for his infamously unfinished project The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (Large Glass) (1915–23; Philadelphia Museum of Art). Many interpret Large Glass as an analogy for the consummation of a marriage and the anxieties around it, but it is very likely that, much like Duchamp’s other works, the meaning is cryptic and, potentially, elusive. The box contains 93 pieces of reproduced ephemera from 1911 to 1915 in random order, including notes, drawings, and sketches of Large Glass’s measurements for installation and scrapped ideas for display. Similar to his later valise box De ou par Marcel Duchamp ou Rrose Sélavy and drawing upon Duchamp’s interest in creating multiples, the contents of the Green Box are all facsimiles—not originals—attesting to Duchamp’s continual pressing of the limits of “art.”

The container for these facsimiles is itself a work of art. Copper strips form the initials “DM,” while a series of holes punctured into the surface of the box spell out the title. An interior inscription, also formed by holes, translates to “for Mary Reynolds,” Duchamp’s longtime creative and romantic partner. Based on the inscription written on the inner spine, this is thought to be the original of the three hundred that he produced, and inspired by Mary Reynolds herself.