The term is said to have been coined by Marcel Duchamp in about 1914, and his ready-mades can be cited as early examples of the genre. Dada was the first anti-art movement, and subsequently the denunciation of art became commonplace -- almost de rigueur -- among the avant-garde (Chilvers 22)

Duchamp also questions the boundaries of the visual arts. In fact, in The Green Box he poses the question whether the visual was not another limitation that art had to transcend. Furthermore, in 1916 he states that he was interested in "ideas" and not just in visual products. (Tomkins 9)

The Green Box, September 1934

The Green Box is basically a box containing collotype reproductions on various papers. It is more correctly known as The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Green Box). The notes and papers in the box refer to a central work entitled The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) (1915 -- 23). In effect what the Green Box comprises is a collection of notes, thoughts and descriptions that serve as a form of artistic record of his creative and intellectual process while he was creating his major work The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. It describes the main artwork in words and diagrams, thereby extending the artwork beyond the visual. The Green Box contains one color plate, ninety-three notes, and photographs and facsimiles by Duchamp and was produced in an edition of 320. (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History) On the one hand it is an important and even essential part of the larger work. However, it is also as work in its own right.

The important aspect...

Put differently, The Green Box was not a key to unlocking the secrets of The Large Glass but, rather, a verbal version of the graphic masterpiece. For Duchamp, The Large Glass represented a compilation of his ideas rendered visually; The Green Box was thus the verbal complement. (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History)
The Green Box is therefore not simply a verbal description of the larger work. It is in itself a separate work of art which is both complex and enigmatic. It does not follow any conventional logic or rationality. This refers to the central thesis discussed above; namely, that this work is intended to project a sense of mystery and ambiguity which cannot be interpreted in logical or rational terms. Duchamp is concerned in this work and others with freeing art from all conventional inhibitions and constraints. He was therefore one of the first Twentieth Century artists to introduce the interrogative and deconstructive mode of thinking into modern art.

Works Cited

Chilvers, Ian. A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. December 16, 2009.

Merritt R.K. Intentions: Logical and Subversive: The Art of Marcel Duchamp, Concept

Visualization, and Immersive Experience. 2003. December 16, 2009.