Degeneration prints home page

The prints for the President: “Why?” series were derived from postage-stamp-size advertisements for mass-market posters — peace signs, anti-war slogans, environmental emblems — cut out of coarsely printed comic books published in the early 1970s. These crude reproductions were enlarged +/- 2000% on a dying laser proofer and then sequentially copied up to 130 times each, with the settings allowed to drift randomly. The process amplified the expected degradation of an image that normally occurs during each step (or “generation”) of the mechanical reproduction process, hence I call them "degeneration" prints.

There are 30 sets of degeneration prints in the President: "Why?" series. Each set consists of approximately 120 prints, with an edition of three prints made from each original. Additionally, the sets were conceived as diptychs, and starting with sets 3 and 4 ("Cosmos Being" and "Peace Fingers"), the pairs were made in tandem.

The prints are presented below with their diptych match from the succeeding run. (Note that there are approximately 1800 pairs, which are being posted as life allows.)

Click on an image to see the diptychs uploaded so far.

01B_Love Peace-w-02A_First Day Finger