The Return of the Cadavre Exquis, The Drawing Center, page 47, paragraph 2

Whereas Breton's surrealism distills itself into objects—a bowler hat, a biscuit, a woman's glove—Bataille envisions it as an image of diffusion, an excess of energy that obscures containment. He called this the "informe," and ascribed it with the "job" of rendering the formed object, idea, emotion, or sign into a state of formlessness.

Formless is thus not merely an adjective with such and such a meaning but a term for lowering status with its implied requirements that everything have form. Whatever it (formless) designates lacks entitlement in every sense and is crushed on the spot, like a spider or an earthworm.⁸

8. Georges Bataille, quoted in Denis Hollier, Against Architecture, The writings of Georges Bataille, Betsy Wing, trans. (Cambridge Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1989), p. 30

The Drawing Center, 1993, New York, 0-942324-06-4