Duboce Street - from "The Book of Hours"

Peter Baczek

Peter Baczek used a combination of aquatint and etching to create this urban nightscape of Duboce Lunch on Deboce Street in San Francisco, which was described as a basic three egg and oatmeal restaurant, owned by Benny Hiles in the 1970s. The restaurant was based in the famous Duboce Triangle neighborhood (between The Castro, Haight, and Mission Districts).

This intaglio was included in the Fort Mason Printmakers' "Book of Hours" portfolio of 1978. Compiled by printmaker Eleanor Rappe, the portfolio was published in a loose-leaf collection of 21 full-sheet intaglios of varying techniques. The preface explains the theme of the portfolio as such: "In the middle ages, devotional Books of Hours based in the monastic daily prayer cycle were compiled for both clergymen and laymen. The contents and illustrations varied greatly from book to book as there was a separate set of offices for each hour of all the feast days of the years. The late middle ages saw the illustrations for the books become an end in themselves.

"In this, we have used the concept of the hours of the day as a framework. Each artist has chosen an hour of special significance and interpreted that hour within the context of his or her personal imagery. While these prints do not have religious meaning in the traditional sense of the word they do become a devotional in each artist's commitment to this contemporary translation of a medieval format."