This model is one of the collection Prêt à Faire: Printable Readymade Models
In late 1916 or early 1917, Marcel Duchamp added pencil, paint, and cardboard to a tin advertisement for Sapolin enamel, an industrial paint, to create this “assisted” readymade. The manipulated lettering is a pun on the name of his friend Guillaume Apollinaire in a work that generally articulates Duchamp's critique of easel painting.
However, this unusual piece exploits an unintentional optical illusion created in the original sign fabrication. The focal point of the work is a bed that owes its form to the practical limitations of the process that raises it out of the image in bas-relief. This process could not create the subtle figure-ground elements necessary to “complete” the side rail as it passes behind the colored slats on the footboard, so the side rail was omitted to stamp the bed out of tin. Many oddities in the tin cut-outs' perspective create and reinforce the optical conundrum that Duchamp so evidently appreciated. Rhonda Roland Shearer’s essay provides a detailed analysis of these.
The original is in the collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and several editions are found in museums worldwide.
Find out more about this work at:
Sample images:
 Philadelphia Museum of Art |  The Israel Museum |  Rhonda Roland Shearer model of sign |
The model differs from the original work to accommodate FDM 3D printing. It is created at full size and must be scaled to print as noted below.
My first attempt to create an expression of this work for 3D printing followed the same strategy as my L.H.O.O.Q. lithophane. But where that work translated well into the lightbox medium, this was not successful at all. I decided the best expression would be to focus on the illusion created by the bed. My expressions of other Readymades were achieved by submitting them as subjects to varying degrees of abstraction, but this is the most extreme example by far: I would build the Impossible Bed.
I'm not the first artist to toy with this bed after Marcel. Sherrie Levine fetishized it, Luca Maria Patella built a pair (one “right” and one “wrong”), John Baldessari created a double-billing, and Shearer analyzed the conflicting perspective. In this work, I synthesize these efforts for a new expression, optimized for 3D printing. I also found something that I believe others may not have noticed: the “flaws” in the perspective may be attributed to differences between perspective vs. orthographic projection methods. See the screenshots of the model in Fusion to understand my process.
 Sherrie Levine, |  Luca Maria Patella, Right Bed and Wrong Bed, 1983-5 |  John Baldessari, Double Bill: ...And Duchamp, 2012 |
The work is modeled at full scale and can be scaled to fit a range of printers. You can print in pure white, but there are five colors in the bed (white, light gray, pink, yellow, and maroon) that you can work with.
There are two versions of the model:
Iteration 1 needs no assembly, and printing with support is unavoidable; I recommend organic to avoid body-to-body supports.
Iteration 2 requires assembly but has several advantages, including far less support.
Recommended materials:
Creality White Hyper PLA
Atomic Filament Light Gray PLA
Cookiecad Pale Pink PLA
Cookiecad Pale Yellow PLA
Hatchbox Dark Red Pro PLA
My general settings:
Print Settings: 0.2mm Structural
Filament: PLA with appropriate profiles for the abovementioned materials
Printer: Prusa XL (for an up to 25% scale model) or MK4/MK3 (for up to 10%)
Supports: Paint-on as appropriate
Infill: 15%
Brim: On the handle only
Advanced settings:
Layers and perimeters: All defaults
Infill: Gyroid fill pattern, Aligned Rectangular top and bottom fill pattern
Support material: Organic style
Special notes:
Create a custom Concentric top and bottom infill pattern for the columns, which should be printed upright using Organic support.
If printing a 25% scale print on a Prusa XL, it takes some fiddling, but you CAN fit the long rails along the diagonal. See the last image in the illustrations above.
The arch pieces can be printed as follows:
OPTION 1: The arches come with a pre-fabricated removable set of bases that allow upright printing. These need support and should have a custom Concentric top and bottom infill applied. The supports do scar the underside of the arch because it is circular in cross-section, but this may be acceptable to you. But if you want a cleaner print...
OPTION 2: Unmerge and remove the bases, rotate the arches 90 degrees, lay flat on the build plate, then use the cut tool parallel to the plate and divide the arches into equal halves. Print these pieces WITHOUT base infill and a Concentric top infill. When finished, super-glue the halves together. Though this is more effort, it yields a superior print without support scarring.
Stats for a 25% print on a Prusa XL:
Total material used: ~518 grams white, ~20 grams light gray, ~21 grams pink, ~20 grams yellow, ~17 grams maroon
Total time: ~31.5 hours
Total number of build plates: 6 (with white taking up 2) - the colored boards can print on a smaller printer at this scale.
I've deliberately created off-center and/or uniquely sized tabs and slots to assist with orientation during assembly. Use the illustrations as a guide when positioning elements to glue.
Glue must be used. I recommend Gloop for PLA, but standard-issue super glue probably works.
The work contains a privileged point of view from which the spectator can see the bed as it appears in the original work. As one moves around it, the illusion becomes apparent, until from the opposite side, an almost Cubist expression of space is evident. Place the work on a table or pedestal so that the eye level allows the viewer to see the work from this point, while also allowing access to the full view all the way around. This phenomenon can be appreciated in the rendered images.
14 DEC: Added an exploded view for assembly and a revision (Iteration 3) for the head and foot colored boards to aid with tolerance during assembly — if printing assembly pieces at a smaller scale, these may work better. Added images of a finished large (25%) scale assembly print. Added 3MF files for assembly, including split columns.
2 DEC:
Re-wrote the description for clarity and consistent formatting across the Prêt à Faire collection.
I deleted the hybrid versions of 15 Nov after experiencing too much unreliability with my multi-material hybrid iteration at a large scale (25%, which is massive!). I uploaded the earlier idea of a flat pack assembly. THESE are separated into several “Iteration 2” folders. While this requires more work to assemble, the results are more predictable and stable.
15 NOV: After experimenting with a fully “flat pack” assembly, I opted instead for a hybrid, partially assembled alternative, now found in the Iteration 2 folder. This prints with much less support and requires assembly with super glue. Iteration 2 can be printed on a smaller machine at the same scale as Iteration 1 on the XL. The resolution has been updated for both models and is now much higher. Finally, I've included pre-plated multi-material painted files for the XL and the MK3 with MMU.
2 NOV: I've included a 3MF file pre-painted for multi-material printing on the Prusa XL. This can be transferred to an MK3 or MK4 with MMU for printing at a smaller scale.
20 SEP: Images now include a quick prototype print in a single color at 10%. I found the vertical bars to be too thin at that scale and thickened them up in a new model upload.
The author marked this model as their own original creation.
