Robert Filliou | The Obvious Deck

Robert Filliou
The Obvious Deck
New York City, USA: Fluxus, 1967
12 x 9.5 x 2 cm.
Edition size unknown (prototypes only?)

Intended as a project for Implosions, Inc. (the publishing venture of George Maciunas, Herman Fine and Robert Watts), it seems this project never made it past the prototype stage. The Lila & Gilbert Silverman collection has  a copy that consists of only a clear plastic box and the Maciunas designed label. The above image, from the Fondazione Bonotto, also appears to be missing the cards, and is listed as a prototype, also.

The deck of cards, as advertised in several Fluxus newsletters, was intended to contain the same image on the front and back, allowing your opponents to see your hand. The work shares much in common with several Fluxus chess sets (by Yoko Ono and Takako Saito) and, more recently, with Adam David Brown's transparent deck Play By Trust (here), which borrows its name from Ono's all white chess set.