Happy Foot / Sad Foot

This Ana Inciardi mini print depicts two blue matchbook covers, each branded for a "Foot Clinic" with the phone number 483-4246. The matchbooks are rendered in a deep navy blue with white hand-lettered script, and each one features a cartoon foot character in orange and white. The upper matchbook shows a slouching, downcast foot figure on crutches, while the lower one presents a cheerful foot with arms raised.

" The Foot Clinic matchbooks are a real piece of mid-century American commercial ephemera, the kind of promotional giveaway that small medical and specialty practices used for decades. Matchbooks were a standard advertising medium through much of the twentieth century, and their compact format made them popular collectibles long before they disappeared from everyday use. Inciardi's eye for vernacular graphics, signage, and found commercial imagery runs throughout her catalog, and this print sits comfortably among her landmark and signage subjects.

Collectors drawn to her urban Americana work tend to gravitate toward this piece for its deadpan humor and its faithful translation of a throwaway object into something considered and precise. The dual-image composition is less common in her output, which makes it a distinctive entry point for collectors building a broader survey of her work. It pairs naturally with her other landmark prints that focus on storefronts, signs, and the graphic culture of American streets.