Dramatic Fire

Beginning in 1978, John Cage made a yearly visit to Crown Point Press in San Francisco to make a set of prints. For his eleventh collaboration with Crown Point Press, Cage surrendered his artistic authorship to the chance operations of the I Ching (The Book of Changes). A classical Chinese divination and cosmological text that dates to the 10th century B.C.E., the I Ching was translated into English in 1950. Cage turned often to the I Ching as a chance operational manual to compose music and art. In the case of this print, the artist would ask questions, such as “How long should I smoke the sheet for?” Then the artist would proceed with the information gleaned from the text. After smoking the handmade paper, creating a different background for each sheet, he printed using a steel-faced copper trapezoid plate.