This etching depicts a schematic one pound note. The phrase in the title ‘by a governed imagination’ suggests that the artist saw himself as ‘governed’ in the sense of being obliged to work within certain constraints. The artist has said that the phrases ‘like Alice’ and ‘no malice’ were inspired by his reading of Martin Gardner’s ‘The Annotated Alice’ given to him by Andrew Dipper. The etching was used as the cover illustration for Tom Raworth’s anthology of poetry ‘Act’ published in 1973.