By Parties Unknown

Woodcut on paper in black ink. A shabbily dressed male figure lies slumped on the wooden steps of a church. His hands are bound behind his back, and a rope noose hangs from his neck. His head is bent forward at an unnatural angle. The wooden church is dilapidated; several wood boards are broken or missing, and tall grasses and plants grow on either side of the steps. The church has a door decorated with Gothic arches, as well as two Gothic stained glass windows. "’By Parties Unknown’ 2/50 Hale Woodruff" is written in pencil along the bottom edge of the paper. A note affixed to the back, signed by Theresa A. Woodruff on August 20, 1981, indicates that this print was created posthumously from Hale Woodruff’s original 1935 plate by the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop.