"On November 25, 1969 in Antwerp, 10 copies on anodized aluminum numbered from I to X and 90 copies on transparent machine paper numbered from 1 to 90 were printed from this image.

The model for this approximate image is the original edition of the poem "Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard" by Stéphane Mallarmé, published in 1914 by the Gallimard bookstore."

editorial note on p. 31 of the book

Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard (Image) is a close copy of the 1914 edition of the French symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem of the same name, but with all the words overprinted by black bars, in a way that corresponds directly to the typographic layout used by Mallarmé to articulate the text.

The edition numbers echo the editions of the 1914 NRF edition, with 300 being the print run of the paper edition.

For the Preface, which is attributed to Mallarmé, Broodthaers carried out a transcription of the Mallarme-Text. The preface now features the entire poem written as a block of text, all in lowercase letters, with each line separated by a slash (/). 

For the edition on translucent paper, Broodthaers "split" the recto and verso of the page onto separate sheets, which has hence 64 pages. The translucent edition also comes with two sheets of white card cut to the size of the book, which can be used as a reading fond.

The aluminum edition features 12 plates, the first one being blank.

"Why? Without doubt, I once encountered Magritte, long ago, and he invited me to contemplate this poem. So, I forgot it; I contemplated it... today, I make this Image. I say farewell. A long period of life.

Farewell to all, to the men of letters that are deceased.

The dead artists.

New! New? Perhaps. Excepted. A Constellation."

Marcel Broodthaers, Open Letter, Antwerp, December 2, 1969 part of and distributed throughout Exposition littéraire autour de Mallarmé