James Joyce’s prints, such as I Knew What Was Coming Next highlight his signature approach to deconstructing and reassembling familiar symbols. In this work, Joyce takes the instantly recognizable smiley face and fragments its key features—eyes, mouth, and outline—scattering them across the canvas in a seemingly random arrangement. Although the composition resists traditional figuration, viewers immediately recognize the smiley through its component parts, revealing the power of visual memory and cultural shorthand.

The piece exemplifies Joyce’s interest in how meaning persists even when form is disrupted. By separating and repositioning these iconic features, he challenges the viewer to reconstruct the image mentally, exposing the way our perception is conditioned by repetition and familiarity. This strategy resonates with his wider practice, where he often draws from symbols of mass culture—smileys, clowns, and other graphic forms—distilling them into minimal yet striking compositions.

In I Knew What Was Coming Next, Joyce balances playfulness with conceptual rigor. The clean lines and bold graphic language recall design aesthetics, while the fragmentation of the face invites reflection on how identity and cultural symbols are built and dismantled. Like much of Joyce’s work, the print demonstrates his ability to blend fine art with the visual strategies of illustration and commercial design, making his imagery accessible but also intellectually charged.