Oil on canvas.
The canvas is divided into 64 equal, and square, parts. 32 of these feature a word, or two words, either painted black on a white background, or white on a black background, with the pattern alternating to form a chessboard (starting black on white in the top left hand corner).
The words, written along the top two rows and the bottom two rows are:
Row 1: confusion, pain, dread, dust, sand, fear, shame and mumbling.
Row 2: low pay, low confidence, low spirit, low status, low hope, low light, low resilience and low ness.
In the central white four squares of the central two rows (4 and 5), alternating between those rows (ie, B4, C5, D4, E5, F4, G5), white on white, reads: living burial- life above their heads.
Row 7: loneliness, quietness, vicariousness, slowness, rudderlessness, listlessness, opaqueness and fecklessness.
Row 8: shadow, insularity, inability, rocks, stones, invisibility, cells and cold.
On the reverse of the canvas is written, in black pencil, “Or they will be happy with their lot; quite possibly happy with everything they have got.”
