William Wiley
The Myth of Sissy Fuss, 2011
woodcut with acrylic
31.5 x 23 in.
edition of 20

Wiley’s The Myth of Sissy Fuss finds his parodic alter-ego Mr. Unnatural, first seen during Wiley’s time teaching at UC Davis in the 1970s, cast as Sisyphus, a king condemned in Greek mythology to endlessly roll a boulder uphill. In this spirit of updating the classics, this edition combines traditional and (literally) cutting-edge technology: a laser augmented by hours of precise hand carving transformed Wiley’s inimitable line drawings into a woodblock, while a UV-cured acrylic printer faithfully captured the artist’s hand-painted watercolor hues.