wedding
in las vegas
A SERIES OF
ENCRYPTED PAINTINGS
BY JEAN-CLAUDE BOSSEL
Current exhibition
painting no. 06
60 x 50 cm
HIDDEN MESSAGES
ENCRYPTED
IN THE PAINTINGS
The paintings in the WEDDING IN LAS VEGAS series contain hidden messages encrypted using the CODE BACH® process.
The messages refer to the wedding of German-Swiss industrialist Gunter Sachs and French actress Brigitte Bardot, who married in Las Vegas on 14 July 1966.
Click the Queen of Hearts.
holes and dots
as graphic symbols
for the digits 0 and 1
In the WEDDING IN LAS VEGAS paintings, some playing cards are pierced with holes of different sizes.
Elsewhere on the canvas, painted circles vary in size and can be filled or hollow.
These differences represent the binary digits 0 and 1.
The holes and circles are part of the composition and give visual form to messages encrypted using the CODE BACH® process.
Look for the five holes in the Queen of Hearts.
Small holes represent 0 and large holes represent 1.
Read from left to right, the sequence is 00011.
At the bottom of the painting, the circles are arranged in vertical groups of five.
Hollow circles represent 0 and filled circles represent 1.
Read from top to bottom, the group on the left of the image gives 01110.
art &
mathematics
Before painting, Jean-Claude Bossel converted the chosen messages into sequences of binary digits.
He then encrypted those sequences using the CODE BACH® process.
The first image below shows some of the handwritten calculations.
The second shows a grid of blue circles used to plan how the encrypted digits would appear in the painting.
the twelve paintings
in the series
wedding in las vegas
All twelve paintings measure 60 x 50 cm.
Mixed media: acrylic, poker chips, playing cards, fragments of a 33 rpm vinyl record and scrap metal from Sachs engines.
Painted in 2024.
Las vegas weddings
sixty years after
the sixties
Click the Queen of Hearts again, this time to see how Las Vegas became the wedding capital of the world.
SIXTIES
FANTASIES
WEDDING IN LAS VEGAS is closely linked to two other series, PASSION SACHS and INITIALS BB, both represented in our current exhibition.
The three series explore different moments in the relationships between actress Brigitte Bardot, her husband Gunter Sachs and her lover Serge Gainsbourg.
SPRING 1966
Gunter Sachs declares his love for Brigitte Bardot by having roses dropped from a helicopter over her home in Saint-Tropez (inspiration for the PASSION SACHS series).
14 JULY 1966
Bardot and Sachs marry in Las Vegas (inspiration for the WEDDING IN LAS VEGAS series).
1967–1968
Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg become lovers.
He writes “Je t’aime… moi non plus” (I love you… me neither) for her, and they record it together.
With Sachs opposed to its release, Bardot asks Gainsbourg to shelve the release.
After their affair ends, Gainsbourg writes “Initials B.B.”, which is released in 1968 (inspiration for the INITIALS BB series).
A FOURTH SERIES
FEATURING A FOURTH
ICONIC FIGURE
The love stories explored in the three series above continue in HIT PARADE SIXTIES, a fourth series of twelve paintings.
The encrypted messages in this series turn to another figure from the late 1960s, the actress Jane Birkin.
She became Serge Gainsbourg’s partner shortly after his break-up with Brigitte Bardot.
Together, they became one of the most recognisable couples of the years that followed.
It was Birkin’s duet with Gainsbourg, released in 1969, that made “Je t’aime… moi non plus” famous.
The version he had recorded with Bardot was still unreleased at the time.
Click the photograph below to discover this fourth series.
Portraits of Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg
in an Art Basel booth in Basel
Private documentary photo
© FGB GALLERY
Basel, Switzerland, June 2025