Chryssa Vardea-Mavromichali was a Greek-born American sculptor best known for her monumental assemblages combining neon, bronze, aluminium, plaster, wood, canvas and paint as well as found objects, which prefigured both pop art and minimalism. Vardea studied in Paris and San Francisco, and in 1955 moved to New York, finding inspiration in the spectacle of the advertising neon signs of Times Square. Her interest in communication and the use of letters was first expressed through small baked-clay tablets entitled Cycladic Books 1955, followed by tablets and plaques with single letters, or variations on letter forms. Using neon since 1962, Vardea was one of the first artists to transform it from an advertising tool into an art material.