Conrad Atkinson has always been deeply concerned with the manipulation and abuse of ordinary people. He made this print as part of a project around the issue of landmines.

In 1996 Atkinson made an installation for Tullie House in Carlisle, in which he scattered ceramic 'landmine' look-alikes throughout the museum among the objects of the permanent collection. Each, however, was decorated with a familiar, culturally iconic pattern, such as bunches of flowers, pictures of babies, reproductions of famous paintings, Wedgwood vases, and so on. Decorated and dispersed, they were both disguised and unexpected in the collection as the visitor viewed it. In this they referred to an element in an actual mine's success. They also punned on the notion of souvenir as something that reminds us of a place we once visited, which stays with us for a very long time. Produced very cheaply in massive numbers for a particular kind of market, souvenirs become deeply embedded in the culture. Atkinson was also reflecting on the idea that a 'culture which produces bombs also produces the kind of work which we see in our museums'.

The series of prints was made as a way of promoting these ideas to a wider audience.