Over a period of four years, Stella created a body of prints whose titles all came from ‘The Dictionary of Imaginary Places’ by Alberto Mangual and Gianni Guadalupi. Each work from this series is recognisable for its teeming compositions of twisting, colliding and knotted forms. The shapes appear to spill out of their rectangular sheet, seemingly trying to escape their frames.

Stella employed his full palette of printmaking media to create these compositions - including lithography, relief printing, etching, aquatint, engraving and screenprinting. As with many of Stella’s printed works, relief is a primary focus in the construction of ‘Despairia’ as this technique was the means in which his art could extend out of its pictorial space and into the viewers own.