Three humbly proportioned explorations following Albrecht Dürer’s Study of Three Hands – a delicately framed sketch that captures the subtle flexion of ligaments and tendons in a work content on not being a magnum opus but simply a demonstration, to either themself or the viewer, of the artist’s axioms and practice. These three posed hands always seem to be on the edge of failure – a twitch or convulsion that has been imminent since 1494. The slightly enlarged knuckles, especially, look as if they would creak at the faintest movement.

(The title quotes the phrase “Manus sunt artium organa; sicut lyra musici, et forceps fabri” attributed to Galen (129—216CE) which reads: Hands are the instruments of the arts; just as the lyre is to the musician, and the forceps to the smith.)