Dem Bones (2018)

The inside cover is lined with fabric with vertical stripes of brown and olive. On the top center of the cover is a shallow round tin containing the skeleton of a garter snake, and on the bottom is an etching of a bearded man’s face. The tin’s lid has a clear plastic window, and its rim is covered in blue silken cloth. Below this tin assemblage is a black-and-white photo of a man with a booze bottle in the foreground. The frame on the right is covered with a color reproduction of the painting Femmes au Jardin by Monet. The central top area is backed with a photo of a theatrical scene with a man chanting in robe and headscarf and his attendant leaning from the side holding a lantern. In front of this picture, a vertical shard of thin green glass supports a black-and-white photo of a man’s lower leg and booted foot. On the sides of this compartment are illustrations of varieties of sandpipers that are mounted on a curve. The lower compartment of the framed area is a removable box with a shoelace handle. This box is fronted with a section of the same Monet painting as the frame. The back of this box is a scene from Titian’s Ecce Homo. The box contains cards from a picture game. Collaged to the backs of these cards are X-ray photographs of sea creatures and a young bird. In the compartment behind the box is an etching illustrating night fishing with cormorants.