Exquisite corpse

Exquisite corpse is a method by which a collection of words or images are collectively assembled, the result being known as the exquisite corpse or cadavre exquis. It is used as a technique by surrealists and based on an old parlour game in which players wrote in turn on a sheet of paper, folded it to conceal part of the writing, and then passed it to the next player for a further contribution.

It was named from the first game, in which the sentence Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau (The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine) emerged. (While initially sentences were constructed using the verbal method, poems were later written by it.)

Later (perhaps inspired by children's books in which the pages were cut into thirds, the top third pages showing the head of a person or animal, the middle third the torso, and the bottom third the legs, with children having the ability to "mix and match" by turning pages), the game was adapted to drawing and collage. (It has also been played by mailing the drawing or collage -- in progressive stages of completion -- to the players, when it is known as "exquisite corpse by airmail" [apparently regardless of whether the game actually travels by airmail or not]). It has been adapted to be done using computer graphics, the construction of surrealist objects, and its adaptation to architecture has even been proposed. Exquisite corpse films have even been made (for example, at New York University).¹.

Some have played the (graphic) game with a more or less vague or general prior agreement as to what the resulting picture will be, but this defeats the essentially surrealist nature of the game. ²

"Totems Without Taboos," organized by the Chicago Surrealist Group at the Heartland Cafe in Chicago, Illinois, was the first exhibition of exquisite corpses in the United States.