Guy and Jean Selz were active in the Montparnasse art world as collectors, critics and writers. Together with Vladimir Pollisadiv (a Ukranian artist who was dating Marie Vassilief at the time), they organized a ball based on the concept of "Utter Poverty." The program of events called for "lice and bugs," along with other elements of squalor and filth, fox-trotting (that’s what the lice-ridden do) to four jazz bands until 5 a.m., a dreadful theatrical presentation, a fashion show, and a general exploration of "black misery in the United States, Russian, Switzerland and Argentina, Japan etc." The event apparently turned into a major scandal and was canceled on the order of the French Interior Minister. Whether the event was intended to be satirical or real, the poster is a compelling Cubistic and Avant-garde work, much in the style of posters for other Russian balls in Paris during those years.