Classic box painting . One design usually fills each side of the box. Where this is the case the designs on the front and back of the box may be very similar. Usually there are small differences that are a conscious part of the design. The artist deliberately made them different. On the real box, you can only see one side at a time. You have to hold the image in your mind to compare one side to the other. With photography, we can see these designs in a way the artists did not.
Here are three boxes - front and back. Compare the designs on the fronts and backs. The overall primary formlines are very similar. The differences may seem subtle at first.
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Further readings on Northwest Coast art.