Collaged Etching by Wayne Bertola: "Is It Really So Serious As All This?"

An engraving of a crowded parlor, where strange masked heads confer around a table.

This collaged etching is by Wayne Bertola, and is ca. 1992. It is ink on paper. In an etching the plate is wiped so that ink stays only in the incised lines, and the paper is pressed into them to pick up the image. Black and white print on warm cream paper, densely worked in fine lines. Seated figures with odd shell-like and helmeted heads lean together near shelves of vases. A goblet sits at the bottom, with a small caption line beneath. It is 4.5 inches wide and 7.25 high.

The conversation looks excellent and nobody is going to explain it.