Although printed in 1966, Winged Curve was not published at that time. The work had been printed on rectangular sheets and Riley felt, then, that the image had not quite worked. The edition was kept in the studio and it was upon rediscovery and long consideration, around the turn of the century, that the decision was taken to crop the sheet to the near-square format that we see today. This adjustment resolved Riley's concerns and, happily, the edition was signed and released in 2001.

Riley’s early black and white works marked a major breakthrough within her practice, forming the basis of an extraordinary six-decade-long enquiry into the mechanics of human perception. Her previous works consisted largely of homages to Georges Seurat, whose Pointillist technique was a key source of inspiration to the young artist. Since her childhood in Cornwall, Riley had been fascinated by the mysteries of vision, paying meticulous attention to the tiny shifts and nuances that define the way we process visual information. While Seurat’s canvases had provided much scope for deep analysis, it was not until the black and white revelation that Riley hit upon a means of formulating her own discoveries. By sequencing simple shapes through a variety of different configurations, she was able to explore at close range the complex optical sensations that even the most basic lines and hues were capable of inciting.