The artist wrote in Graven Image(Macmillan & Co Ltd, London 1940) that the print had been made as an experiment, and was 'an independent print unrestricted by any limitations such as the book had on imposing on my art and time: I was not concerned as to whether I would please somebody, or sell even one copy.

The value of such an experiment, apart from the pleasure I derived from making it, convinced me of the necessity of making similar essays into the unknown and unwanted. And since then I have made one of these large blocks almost every year; never more than one a year. Sometimes one of these large blocks is my mind for two years before I make it. I am afraid they get less and less popular, but then they are not made as ‘popular’ prints. In them I have made all my discoveries and felt my way to freedom and invention that needs but little adaptation to be absorbed into my bookwork.’