The quote is from Ursula K. Le Guin’s anarchist science fiction novel from 1974, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, a book that continues to inspire me with its deep exploration into the ideas of freedom, solidarity, community, creativity, and responsibility. When trying to think of an image for these words I thought of a farm laborer reaching over a fence to take an apple.
This image was originally conceived for the reprint of Ursula K. Le Guin's related short story The Day Before the Revolution that Josh MacPhee and I published last year. We ended up taking a different aesthetic direction with that project and this linoleum block sat for a year until the hot days of August 2020 drove me down into the basement to print.