La Main à deux pouces (The two-thumbed hand) is a work by Éric Duyckaerts, first shown at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in 1993 and originally conceived as a multimedia installation comprising a video, X-rays, molds, and various pseudo-scientific drawings and sketches of a human hand augmented with a second thumb. The three five-minute pseudo-scientific video sequences—Base 12, Corpus Callosum, and Chercheur cherchant [Researcher Researching]—feature a spectacular morphological evolution. In the first two, Duyckaerts solemnly posits that the human species once had two thumbs on each hand and will again in the future. Drawing on paleontology and the duodecimal number system, he explains how having six fingers would enhance painting techniques. In Chercheur cherchant, a scientist reluctantly responds to an imaginary interviewer, criticizing the public’s obsession with the practical applications of research. These three sketches stage various modes of authority, from the gravitas of the scientific lecture, to pompous condescension.

The unfounded claims of La Main à deux pouces had the intended effect: “Some uninitiated viewers asked me whether it was true that humanity is evolving toward the two-thumbed hand. That’s always gratifying,” noted the artist. [1] The video concludes with a ludicrous tutorial on strangulation, during which Duyckaerts ponders how twelve fingers might function: “So, where do we put the four middle fingers?”

The video adopts the visual and rhetorical codes of the academic lecture. Of the film students from La Fémis (France’s national film school), who shot the piece, Duyckaerts wrote: “Accustomed to heavy-handed cinema shoots, they didn’t realize how unnecessary it was to shout ‘Rolling!’ or ‘Action!’ in the context of my work. It was pretty funny. A bit like the unexpected importation of a given cultural sign into a context where it doesn’t belong”. [2]

Marie Muracciole, November 2020

Translated by Laurie Hurwitz

[1] Base 12, Corpus Callosum, Chercheur cherchant, 1993.

[2] Éric Duyckaerts, “La Main à deux pouces,” https://www.documentsdartistes.org/artistes/duyckaerts/repro5.html, accessed May 2, 2025.