Bell Telephone (18/50)

In Bell Telephone, Oda appropriates the iconic silhouette of the American rotary telephone — a Bell System product ubiquitous in postwar domestic space — as a focal point for commentary on communication, domesticity, and female presence. Her woodblock technique, using hand-carved blocks and flat saturated color on washi, strips the object of its commercial context and elevates it into the register of symbol. The composition probably positions the telephone in close proximity to one of her goddess figures, the instrument's curved handset echoing the sinuous contours of the human body she favored. Edition of 50. Impression 18 of 50.