Mariana Alzamora, now living in Mallorca, was brought up in Lima (Peru) and has lived, studied and worked in the US, and in Greece. She paints and makes clay reliefs, as well as printmaking. Much of her work uses mythic imagery to express an emotional response to nature and to explore the Nature/Culture divide. She has now made several series of etchings loosely based on the myth of Sisyphus, but this sequence of 7 prints is unique, as each print is modified by overprinting with separate plates, or has hand-painted additions. There are strong parallels between these prints and her works in clay, especially the uncoloured and unfired pieces which retain their earth colours, and in which certain motifs recur. The prints appear as palimpsest fragments of a mysterious narrative of creation and renewal.

She says of the prints:
"These prints are unique works. Unlike conventional prints which form part of an edition and are numbered copies of an image, these works are constructed from several etched plates so that the final image is a complex overlay arrived at spontaneously and therefore unrepeatable...The source of the images etched on the copper plates come from paintings and low relief works in clay where thoughts, emotions, events, moments, epiphanies are recorded. In this manner, the plates become movable symbols, which will become a part my language. The etchings which were a way of compiling and recording the images created in the course of a year, became a means of developing them further to uncover their deeper meaning."