While the gufa has been the result of a kind of a jugalbandi between Doshi and Husain, their perceptions differ. ... for Doshi, the cave is a part of the personal, quasi-spiritual quest, for Husain, it signifies the place man began, and is thus a chapel to honour man and art.
Just days before the gufa was to be inaugurated, Husain disappeared and returned in the evening with Rs 60,000 worth of varied books. "I am going to get many more and place these books on the floor for the time being and let people come in and read."
Husain has limited himself in the gufa - other than the black undulating snake-line which gropes round the exterior-to extraordinary wood-cuts, which he has placed inside the cave. These figures which he, in yet another mumble, calls "still choreography" enhance the shadow play in the cave. But they also do something more.
"While the caves take us to a time past, these figures bring us back to the future, time can't be limited, like a river." Hence those menacing soldiers with guns ("face of organised, state violence"), a man with horns sitting on a chair with a gun in his hands ("evil power, he is the devil sitting there").
With Husain, everything is accidental, even though by long-standing design....
[text: Madhu Jain in India Today, 15th February 1995]
See also …
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Husain-Doshi ni Gufa under construction .... Ahmedabad: Vastu Shilpa Consultants, 1994.