then/and

A two-lane highway channels into a four-lane no man’s land toward Main Street. Wide, empty medians. A confusion of frontage roads. At the Family Dollar, a young woman stands alone in line with a bag of Cheetos and a child's t-shirt on a hanger that reads “My Day Begins At Noon” in pink glitter letters.

 

A tax service, a truck repair, auto parts, tacos, a drivetrain specialist, a county health office, a liquor store. A church in a warehouse with a swing set outside.

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Wild Rough Country is a collection of three short works about men, women, and American violence. The title piece, “Wild Rough Country,” considers the figure of the outlaw against the backdrop of the modern West. “Right to Pretty Heroines” explores femininity and youth in the writing of F. Scott Fitzgerald. “Birds” examines the interplay of tenderness and tyranny across the stages of a woman’s life.

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Wild Rough Country is the second in a series of artist books to be published by Holly Myers through then/and publications. These works combine images and text to explore ideas, impressions and themes in their raw state. The series serves as a fluid compositional space, intuitive and exploratory rather than analytical and declarative, in which to reckon with the substance of contemporary life.   

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