(#136) ACME BREAD:

Edition of 3218 of which 300 copies are signed 1-300; 26 are signed A-Z as artist's proofs; one copy is signed as a dedication copy and three sets are signed as progressives.

February 24, 1989 Fourteen colors. (CAUTION: Fugitive inks) 16" x 24"

Models: Rebecca Sullivan & the artist's pet rabbit " Potato."

Client: Acme Bread Company, Steven and Susan Sullivan, 1601 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley CA 94702. Telephone (510) 524-1327 or 524-1021 (division 2) or 843-2986 (Division 1) A-Z: Artist's own use Dedication copy: Steven, Susan & Rebecca Sullivan Progressives: One set to the Sullivans
(Print That Works, Elizabeth Adler, Bull Publishing Co., 1990, page 177)

Reprinted with more lightfast inks May 15, 1993. What could be found of the earlier, unsigned edition was recalled and destroyed. Edition of 3602 of which 100 copies are signed 1-100; 26 are signed A-Z as artist's proofs; one copy is signed as a dedication copy and three sets are signed as progressives. Roman numeral ii in a circle next to the signature block.

As long as paper and ink will last, Rebecca Sullivan and Potato the Rabbit stand here enshrined, gazing out at the viewer, each thinking opaque thoughts. The thoughts of a child are of children, and the thoughts of a rabbit are of rabbits.* Rebecca's father makes bread, and bread is what he thinks about. He started out at Chez Panisse, and what he wanted to do was make bread. So, he made bread for Chez Panisse and he got better and better at it, and then he started a bakery.

He rises early and kneads the dough and bakes it every day; and every day we learn again just how wonderful is bread fresh out of the oven, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. His daughter lives by her father's bread, and little Potato loved Steven Sullivan's bread all his life long. Each time I bite into a warm, welcoming loaf a host of fragmented memories rush through my head. I think of my mother who baked bread twice a week, and I think of all the friends with whom I've broken bread. I think of things that are and are not, and were and will never be again. I think of things I have no name for. Eat bread and salt and speak the truth.**

* Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) "All the thoughts of a turtle are turtles, and of a rabbit, rabbits." The Natural History of Intellect (1893)

** The Russian proverb is expanded by the article "Salt" in the 11th Edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica, (1911): "And it must be remembered that the habitual use of salt is intimately connected with the advance from nomadic to agricultural life, i.e. with precisely that step in civilization which had most influence on the cults of almost all ancient nations. The gods were worshipped as the givers of kindly fruits of the earth, and, as all over the world, "bread and salt" go together in common use and common phrase, salt was habitually associated with offerings, at least with all offerings which consisted in whole or in part of cereal elements."