Cut odds of doleful verse becoming artwork (6)
I believe the answer is:
oeuvre
'cut' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'odds of doleful verse becoming artwork' is the wordplay.
'odds of' indicates alternate letters (the letters in odd-numbered positions are used).
'verse' becomes 'v'.
'becoming artwork' becomes 're' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The alternating letters of 'doleful' are 'oeu'.
'oeu'+'v'+'re'='OEUVRE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for oeuvre that I've seen before include "(Artist's) body of work" , "Collected works" , "Body of artistic or literary work" , "(A composer's) works" , "Substantial body of work from our Eve" .)