This suite of etchings debuted at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts and Multiples in New York in October of 1976. Arakawa had shown works from his famed series, The Mechanism of Meaning, at the Venice Biennale in 1970 and continued working along this vein in the early 1970s. The Signified or If shows Arakawa’s growing interest in longer, probing text in his work, including phrases like “It disappeared or disappearance became it just as previously the signified had disappeared into it”. The suite showcases Arakawa’s use of diagrams to layer symbols, signs, and text in a single piece, especially with straight lines reaching across and striking through other forms. These radiant lines became signature of Arakawa’s work in the mid 1970s, creating elaborate puzzles of visual information. The Signified or If brings together an understanding of the given materials of our world, or the ‘Signified,’ and individual perceptions and interpretations of it all, or the ‘If’.