In 1970, 3M Company invited Sonia Landy Sheridan, a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, to their labs to explore the artistic possibilities of their new Color-in-Color, a photocopy machine that could produce instant images. This machine was the first of its kind. Throughout the ’70s, Sheridan spent time learning its ins and outs.

Sheridan made this print by feeding the same image through the Color-in-Color machine multiple times to generate deep black and gray tones. The repeated copying also created a blurred impression of Sheridan’s face, which appears above the more detailed rendering below. A book Sheridan made documenting her time in residence at 3M appears in a case in this gallery.