This piece is dated 2004. It is one of Banksy’s lesser known works, but thanks to the wordplay in its title it is also one of his most layered.

The image shows two lovers, sharing a single strawberry between them.

Here the strawberry is not an innocent piece of fruit but a symbol of wealth: expensive out of season, at home on luxury tables, something whose scarcity is felt even when it is shared. Two people sharing a single strawberry looks like a romantic gesture, but it can just as easily be read as a scene of scarcity.

The title takes the whole piece somewhere completely different. “Wasp” is simply the insect, and at first glance we expect a nature image combining a heart and a wasp. But WASP is also an acronym: White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. This is an informal term, sometimes used with a disparaging tone, for the high status, influential white population in the United States of English Protestant descent. This group holds a disproportionate share of the country’s financial, political and social power.

With this reading, the scene rebuilds itself. The expensive fruit shared by the two lovers is no longer only a moment of love. It becomes an image of privilege, shared within a particular class, within a particular circle.

This is a technique Banksy has repeated throughout his career: the image says one thing, while its title says the exact opposite, or something far sharper.

Love Heart Wasp is one of Banksy’s quietest but most cunning works. There is no policeman, no weapon, no piece of wall text. Just two people, a strawberry and a play on words.