In 2006 Grayson Perry curated an exhibition at The Collection in Lincoln entitled The Charms of Lincolnshire, which displayed a selection of artefacts from the museum alongside Perry’s own work, most of it specifically made for the show. The two linocuts Mr and Mrs Perry are a response to primitive Victorian portraits Perry found in the collection. At the time he was also looking at American folk art, especially portraits made by jobbing artists. Perry found the crudity of these portraits very appealing. Before cutting the lino he made two fairly finished drawings of Philippa, his wife, and himself looking ‘like in the olden days’. They were meant to be casual ‘not anything particularly sophisticated, a simple black-and-white image that had the right feel’. He printed them on various different papers, most of the sheets either flocked or foil patterned, with roughly torn or unevenly cut edges. The choice of paper was deliberate. Perry wanted the prints ‘to look as they were done on scraps of paper’ just as back in New England where ‘they would use whatever was available, bits of wallpaper or wrapping paper’. One particularly striking pair was printed over pastoral scenes on Toile de Jouy paper. Perry is happy to admit that they are ‘pretty poor likenesses’; instead he was aiming for a ‘hand-done expressionistic look’. The pairs of Mr and Mrs Perry linocuts are put together from two disparate sheets of paper, emphasizing the improvized and accidental nature of the linocuts. They were printed in the artist’s studio by Eric Great-Rex.