This is Banksy's third image issued as a screenprint. There are two issues of this print, with the title in different typefaces; this is the second issue, with the caption in a calligraphic script with each word capitalized. The image on which this print is based appeared on a bridge on Old Street in London, so that a row of riot police smiled down on commuters driving through Shoreditch.

Banksy (b. 1974) is the most famous graffiti artist to have emerged from the British Street Art scene. Banksy’s art developed out of the Bristol underground street scene in the late 1980s. Early in his career, he was heavily influenced by the work of the French artist Blek le Rat and by the members of the anarcho-punk band Crass, who ran a graffiti stencil campaign on the London Tube system in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Working primarily with spray paint and stencils, Banksy has achieved popular acclaim for his graffiti works, which often employ satirical humor and highlight social and political inequalities. Aside from his reactionary street art, Banksy has created works for several charities, and frequently exhibits his art. He has consistently refused to reveal his true identity, and this refusal has added considerably to his cult appeal. In 2010, Banksy’s film “Exit Through the Gift Shop” debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, and eventually was nominated for an Academy Award. Recently, he was included in the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art’s “Art in the Streets” group exhibit, alongside artists such as Futura 2000, Shepard Fairey, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Rammellzee. Banksy lives and works primarily in Bristol, England.