The French word découper means “to cut out or cut from something.” The first recorded instance of découpage, the art of paper cutting, is found in the Far East, 2000 years ago. The craft was practiced primarily in Japan, China, and Egypt, and was often used to depict religious figures and iconography. When découpage reached Europe its temperament turned romantic, and paper-cut silhouettes and portraits became popular. This exhibition presents paper cutting from the 19th and 20th centuries, with the focus on work by Swiss masters. —E.C.