This piece was created with hand-set letterpress printed type on French paper, folded into a "fortune teller" as a project for the COCO course, "Dave the Potter".
"A childhood game with a sinister twist - 'Dave's Fortune' is a reminder of his status as a slave, even with his renown as an American poet and potter. Upon first encounter with the fortune teller, one is made to choose from 4 letter, D-A-V-E. The next iteration of the fortune teller opens up the piece to reveal a series of numbers with double meaning, while prompting users to pick a fortune to reveal. The numbers also bear reminder of Dave's ceramic work, as well as his status as a slave—18[005], 20, 3/5, 7/4. The foreboding part of this fortune teller is that no matter which fortune is revealed, they all say the same inscription, taken from one of Dave's jars, "Dave Belongs to Mr. Miles." The fortune teller morphs from a childhood game to sobering reminder of an institution that stole the childhoods and livelihoods of many others like Dave." - Asha Wills '17