California-based artist William Dole began working in collage in the mid-1950s. He regarded works such as this one, which contain several fragments of printed paper alongside colored printed and handmade papers, as "concrete poetry," a form of poetry in which the physical presentation of language takes primacy. Although diminutive in size, this work is remarkably rich. It includes evocative fragments of language: the word "multitude" at top right, juxtaposed with the letter "I" and a strip of colored pink paper; and "thou hast most justly," pasted just below the artist's signature.
Signed and dated in ink lower right, "W. Dole 1974".