Description

“These happy and innocent people are together spelling the word “FUCK”. They are unaware of the meaning of their actions. Each letter individual lacks meaning, but when gathered together to create a word, a new concept is formed.”

– Akio Takamori –

* The background chine collé element is an actual page from an antique woodcut song book of chants or librettos for a Japanese NOH play published in 1919.

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The image was hand cut by the artist. The chine collé elements are taken from 1919 vintage Japanese NOH song chant books. Some pages contain foxing, stains, fingerprints, etc. that are part of the history of the books. No attempt was made to clean away these elements, but the pages were de-acidified before attachment to the rag paper to insure archival stability. These pages constitute a variable in the edition since no 2 prints incorporate the same pages or script.

The prints were pulled by hand on an intaglio press. Each impression is embossed in the lower right corner margin with a blind stamp that says, “copyright 2017 Estate of Akio Takamori”. A wet stamp with the signature of Vicky Takamori appears verso. The LLW chop is in the lower left corner margin.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This print was originally intended to feature lithographic color elements. The proofing of the key image was approved by the artist, but his subsequent death prevented him from returning to make the additional color plates. The key image was released as black and white image with the approval of the Akio Takamori estate.