Hundertwasser's comment on the work

These signing days are not included in the days of work indicated on the reverse side. To give his fingers and spirit a break, Hundertwasser interrupted the signing once he reached a significant stage in the numbering and went with Alberto to have a cup of coffee in the arcade café Bella Venezia. A bottle of sparkling wine was kept on ice for this occasion, too, but remained unopened.

Hundertwasser applied the date stamp and signed with home-made india ink, which he obtained using liquid soot which dripped from his stovepipe. He used a rubber stamp to correct the printed number 10001 to 10002 and a Japanese stamp with an inkan, the Japanese ink pad.

The sheets were stacked in tens, and 50 formed a row of 5 stacks of 10 on a long table in a separate room, to facilitate the signing and stamping. Sets of ten sheets were then fanned out and carried back to the printshop to dry the soot-ink signature and the Japanese stamp by laying them on drying shelves. Alberto lent a hand in this. (from: brochure on 860 Homo Humus come va, Die Galerie, Offenbach on the Main, 1984)

This was a strenuous effort which can hardly be imagined: ten thousand originals in one edition. Just signing them all took eighteen days in the course of two months. (from: Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 2, Taschen, Cologne, 2002, p. 867)