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(#66) FAUST:

Edition of 2047 of which 300 copies are signed 1-300, 26 copies are signed A-Z as artist's proofs, and five sets are signed as progressives.

July 25, 1977 Seven colors 18" x 24"

Client: Tom Luddy, The Pacific Film Archive, University of California Art Museum, 2625 Durant Avenue, Berkeley CA 94720. Telephone (510) 642-1413 A-Z: Artist's own use

Influence: Georges de Feure

There are some things Man was not meant to know." The legend of Faust, in all its historical manifestations, encapsulates the anti-science, anti-intellectual stance of those who believe that faith is incompatible with learning, and in the essentially evil character of purely human knowledge. The notion persists that there is such a thing as a compact with the arch-fiend, by which the scholar obtains the summit of earthly ambition at the expense of his immortal soul. The moral of the Faust legend predicts the inevitable doom which follows the willful revolt of the intellect against divine authority. Perhaps I'll rewrite The Tragicall History of Dr. Faustus, and call it Better Living Through Chemistry? or Earth First! vs. Lawrence Livermore Laboratories.

Much of this commentary on the Faust legend has been abstracted from the article "Faust," by Water Alison Phillips appearing in the Encyclopędia Brittanica, Eleventh Edition, 1910.