In Switchski's Syntax, Stuart Davis turned a tiny matchbox advertisement for Champion spark plugs into a heroic American still life. "Needless to say," Davis wrote, referring to a different painting that featured the same word, "the letters themselves in ‘Champion’ and the color and their arrangement have no identity with the source." The lines and shapes of the word, divorced from its original meaning, become the subject matter of the painting. The composition also features split elements, which blur the order of the painting's overlapping shapes by featuring the color of one form within the confines of another—as in the black-and-white circle straddling the green band at the lower left. Near the top of the letters, a strip of masking tape allowed Davis to test the addition of a black line before actually painting it on the canvas; ultimately, he decided not to remove the tape.