David Shrigley|Counter Editions

In the three handmade editions, every copy is at once part of a numbered edition and a drawing, painting or decorated sculpture in its own right, and that is what sets this series apart. The five screenprints, made between 2012 and 2020, run alongside them.

Editions made by hand

The earliest, 'Untitled (This Will Not Be Here Tomorrow)' from 2009, shows a signpost carrying the words of its title. Every copy was drawn by hand, so the lines vary from sheet to sheet. The sign can be read as hopeful or as melancholy, and as a comment on the environment or on the art market itself.

'Shits' (2019) takes the idea further: Shrigley painted every copy himself in his Brighton studio, and announced the release as a "multiple painting edition".

'Swan Thing' carries it into three dimensions. The swan was already a recurring form in his work. In 2018 he made the 'Ridiculous Inflatable Swan-Thing' and showed giant inflatable swan things at Spritmuseum in Stockholm, and in 2019 a 13.5 metre inflatable swan appeared at Denmark's Heartland Festival. The Counter Editions swan, dated 2023, went on sale on 4 March 2025.

The screenprints

'Gold Disc' (2012) reads as a comment on popular success and the trappings that come with it. 'Life Is Fantastic' was an official print for Team GB at the Rio 2016 Olympics. It pairs a cheerful thumbs-up with an oversized pink ice cream cone whose shape recalls the Olympic torch. The thumbs-up links it to 'Really Good', the seven-metre bronze thumbs-up he made for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square that year. 'Be Nice' was made to coincide with his 2018 exhibition of 91 new works at Sketch in London, and 'I Love...' (2019) was drawn on the theme of childhood.

'Life Is Fantastic' and 'Be Nice' were printed at K2 Screen in London. 'I Love...' and 'I Am Listening' (2020, published as 'Untitled (I Am Listening)') were printed at Counter Editions' own studio in Margate.

At auction

Between October 2021 and October 2026, the highest auction result for a work in this series was £8,820, for 'Life Is Fantastic' at Phillips London in January 2023. That is roughly double the £4,375 the same print made there in January 2017, a few months after its release. 'Be Nice' made £7,560 at Phillips London in September 2022, and 'I Am Listening' £6,930 in January 2023. The hand-painted 'Shits' sold for between £2,413 and £4,788 at Phillips London between 2021 and 2023. All these figures include fees.