Thek met Contrucci, an Italian craftsman, in Amsterdam. In an interview with Richard Flood in 1981 Thek says: "Apropos of Fishman, an Italian craftsman who was struggling to keep alive in Amsterdam was hoping to get a contract from the city to produce trash cans around this latex dwarf with a big receptacle mouth. But the city fathers didn't buy it... Every time I'd go to the man's studio, I saw this big dwarf there unused and I fell in love with the hopelessness of the situation. A Dutch friend of mine said, "Oh, Assubanipal the dwarf," because the treatment of the beard looked kind of Assyrian. So from then on, I tried to squeeze him into the shows, and he became indispensable." (Flood, 1981). This particular dwarf was used by Thek as bearer of the parade table in Amsterdam 1969. In Lucerne Franz Deckwitz painted the dwarf's hood blue (interwiew with Edwin Klein, June 9, 2005). This photograph was used as cover for the catalogue of the exhibition. For the work of art © The Estate of George Paul Thek, New York. For the photography © the photographer. Foto: Edwin Klein.