They [herms] started in the late fifties. Most all of them were begun in the late fifties—and when I say “late,” that’s really ’59. They bear the dates of ’60 or ’61 or ’62 because there was a process of change; that is, they only became what they are as time went on. They were not conceived either in polychrome or barren wood; they were found objects and they were exercises in natural finishes like rust and patination of wood and the harmonies are very close and very earthy.
— Robert Indiana
Robert L. B. Tobin, William Katz, and Donald B. Goodall, Robert Indiana (Austin: University of Texas, 1977), p. 25.