Book excerpt: "Paper Pools is the most recent major group of works by David Hockney, demonstrating his fascination with new techniques in the service of his passionate pursuit of creative representation. In 1976, Hockney had become obsessed with the technique of coloured etching, which he had been taught by the French print-maker Aldo Crommelynck and which resulted in the Blue Guitar series, among other inventive works. Now Hockney has applied himself with infectious enthusiasm to the making of Paper Pools, in which painting and paper-making are totally fused." --preface.