L'ecurie de Bucephale 

Roger Vieillard created 'L'ecurie de Bucephale' using etching, a printmaking technique with a long history. The image is built from carefully incised lines on a metal plate, which would have been submerged in acid, allowing the lines to be bitten into the surface. Ink fills these lines, and is then transferred to paper under high pressure. The resulting print has a unique tactile quality. Notice how Vieillard uses the linear quality of the etching process to create the whole composition, with tight grids creating a sense of architectural space, and a stark contrast between the white horse and the dark background. It almost feels like an architectural model, the horse just a surreal intrusion. This kind of printmaking demands a slow, methodical approach, far removed from the speed of modern industrial production, yet here it depicts a space of enclosure and control. It reminds us that all making, no matter how skilled or careful, can be implicated in wider social structures.