Throughout the 1970s Benglis produced several different series of intricate knots made from tubes of wire screening. Nu is titled after-and playfully depicts-a Greek letterform. It is one of twenty-four works based on each character of the Greek alphabet, a reference to the artist's heritage.

The range of bodily gestures that are required to produce such a knot from a wet plaster and cloth-covered wire tube-pulling, tying, and turning-are evidenced in the work's double knot form. Nu represents a transition in Benglis's knot pieces which, in the mid-1970s, went from sparkled to metallized. It is one of the few surviving works that uses both Sculp-metal, applied by Benglis with a brush, and sparkles. This work was acquired for Storm King's permanent collection in 1974, shortly after it was shown in the artist's solo exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York.