Raymond Hains's ““France in Shreds”” and the Politics of Déécollage

ABSTRACT This article traces the reception of Raymond Hains's 1961 exhibition of torn posters relating to the war in Algeria, titled ““La France dééchiréée”” (France in Shreds). By examining how these works were read, and how they both mobilized and contained their imagery for different audiences, the political instability of montage during the early sixties——its availability as a tool of ambiguity for artists like Hains——becomes clear.