'ABCD' by Raoul Hausmann is a typical Dada collage which he described as a 'poster poem'. It is a visual counterpart to the Dada 'sound-poems' that were heard at the 'Cabaret Voltaire'. In 1916 Hugo Ball proclaimed, "I created a new species of verse, 'verse without words', or sound poems....". However, it would be more generous to attribute their inspiration to Filippo Tommaso Marinetti of the Italian Futurists and Hausmann acknowledges this debt by including the letters 'VOCE', the Italian word for voice. The word 'MERZ', which appears on a ticket in the centre of the collage, refers to the art of Kurt Schwitters who was a co-exhibiter with Hausmann in the early years of Dada. The Czech banknote in the bottom left hand corner is a souvenir from their visit to Prague where they performed a joint recital of Hausmann's sound poem, 'fmsbwtözäupggiv-..?mü'
When you first look at this work your eye is immediately drawn to its main theme: the letters 'ABCD' which are clamped in the teeth of a photographic self portrait. A spiralling arrangement of ticket stubs and typographic elements frame the artist's head. It is difficult to ignore the communicative power of the letters and numbers and you cannot help but enter into a dialogue in an attempt to make sense of them. It's an impossible task but there are just enough recognizable elements to keep your curiosity engaged. The text on the 'MERZ' ticket translates as 'Raoul Hausmann as Emotional Margarine', a sarcastic comment on the Expressionists' painting technique.