Conceived and drawn in 1963 and completed in 1970, Wilderness I is one of two drawings that shares this title (Wilderness II, Collection of the artist). This work relates to a series of paintings Johns executed during the early sixties. Although Wilderness I is not a study for a specific painting, it does relate to a number of works by Johns from 1962, including Fool's House, Slow Field, Zone and M. Both drawings deal with the subject of the artist and his studio. The inclusion of artist's tools (paintbrush, ruler and canvas) and a mold of the artist's hand suggest the creative process.

In Wilderness I, a paint brush is suspended from a
string attached to a clear acrylic cast of his own hand,
and a 12-inch wooden ruler is placed below the lower edge.
The isolated hand fragment gives a disturbing quality to the work; the way the screw eye (holding the brush and string)
pierces the hand suggests a cruxifiction or stigmata
image, conveying the idea of the artist's suffering as part
of the creative process. At the same time, the cast is
presented with objects pinned to it which makes the hand
appear to be an object, too. Under the hanging brush is a labelled diagram ("brush", "screw", "string or wire").
There is also a labeled drawing of a stretcher and the
primary color names. (R. Bernstein, Jasper Johns' Paintings
and Sculptures 1954-1974, pp. 98-99)

Initially, in 1963, Johns drew an image of the back of a canvas and the words RED, YELLOW, and BLUE (similar to the composition of Out the Window, 1959). The motif of the canvas has been used by Johns throughout his career, beginning with Canvas, 1956. In Wilderness I, Johns labeled the image of the painting's stretcher with the word "stretcher", just as he labeled "brush", "screw eye", and "string or wire". This relationship of word to image has been an important part of Johns' oeuvre since the mid-fifties.