The iron holds a complex network of meanings for Willie Cole, recalling the domestic servitude of many African American women (Cole's mother and grandmother both worked as housekeepers), but also referring through its shape to slave ships and African tribal art. Here he superimposes the pattern of holes from a steam iron over his own self-portrait, alluding to the ritualistic tattooing and scarification of tribal culture as well as the branding of slaves. The spectral image in the central panel was screenprinted onto handmade paper with lemon juice which turned brown under the application of a heat gun. Cole's self-portrait appears again in the right panel, inverted and obscured by an iron wondrously transformed into an African mask.

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