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From Elnora, Inc. and E.T. Williams, the owner of the Hale Woodruff Estate: In Relics, Hale Woodruff refers to the 40 acres and a mule promised to freed slaves after the Emancipation
Proclamation. His image is a commentary on the emptiness of the U.S. government’s promise to
bring American blacks into economic parity. In the years following the Civil War, congress
shirked its responsibility, providing ex-slaves such depleted resources as broken-down animals
and ramshackle dwellings. Making brilliant use of the splintered texture and sharp edges of the
linocut. Woodruff delineates the shack’s exploded seams, warped shingles and splayed plans.
The roof’s sagging decrepitude seems to mimic the curve of the poor swayback mule.