The Great Fish Moved Silently: Nick Smith revisits Jaws

THE GREAT FISH MOVED SILENTLY is Nick Smith’s 2025 return to the Jaws poster, published by RHODES Editions for the film’s fiftieth anniversary. The edition of fifty measures 111.4 by 90.2 centimetres and was announced at £2,000 plus packing and postage. It combines giclée with a screenprinted varnish overlay on 310gsm Canson Rag Photographique. RHODES specifies pencil signature, date and numbering, the artist’s and publisher’s blindstamps, and a hand-torn deckled edge. The artist announced the sale for 26 June at 4 p.m. British Summer Time; the publisher now marks the edition sold. RHODES release record.

The earlier Jaws print is the most relevant comparison. Smith’s official print archive lists YOU’RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER BOAT! as an edition of fifty, 72 by 60 centimetres. RHODES explicitly connects the 2025 work with his 2018 treatment and describes the change from film-script text to locations of shark-human encounters. Smith gives the new count as 1,247 coastal locations. The anniversary edition therefore changes the text’s source as well as the physical size: it is a new interpretation, not merely an enlarged issue of the earlier print. Artist’s exact release notice.

The retained edition size can obscure that change. Both print runs number fifty, so a seller’s phrase “the edition of fifty” is not enough to identify which work is being offered. The 2025 title, 111.4-by-90.2-centimetre sheet and location-based text are the distinguishing specifications. The exact RHODES release specification is 111.4 by 90.2 centimetres; use that full measurement rather than a rounded catalogue summary when planning a frame.

Compare the production with AFTER HOURS, another RHODES release from 2025. Both use giclée and screenprinted varnish on the same named 310gsm Canson paper, but AFTER HOURS is a 63-by-98-centimetre edition of ninety-nine. Sharing paper and finish does not mean the images use the same narrative device: the Jaws work’s distinctive contribution is the move from a fictional script to a catalogue of reported real-world locations. The locations are part of Smith’s stated research for the image; RHODES does not provide an incident-by-incident catalogue.

The practical consequences are specific. A frame or storage arrangement sized for the earlier 72-by-60-centimetre Jaws print will not accommodate this sheet, and the deckled edge should be considered when deciding how much of the paper a mount will show. The artist’s and publisher’s blindstamps, together with the pencil signature, date and number, supply further identification cues beyond the familiar poster image.