𝐻𝒪𝒯 𝐵𝒪𝒟
Basket Books & Art
Exhibition Dates: July 27-September 1, 2024
Reception: August 17, 2024

Basket Books & Art coordinated and presented 𝐻𝒪𝒯 𝐵𝒪𝒟, a group exhibition of collaborative drawings, facilitated through postal correspondence and featuring the work of well over a hundred artists. Thank you to Erica Reed Lee for inviting me to participate. And thank you to Durant Thompson for welcoming being invited to contribute to our Texas-Oklahoma-Mississippi exquisite corpse.

The drawings presented in 𝐻𝒪𝒯 𝐵𝒪𝒟 are the result of a months-long correspondence chain using the technique of cadavre exquis, a collaborative surrealist game that uses drawing or text and the element of chance to create a figure, often monstrous or absurd in its final revelation. The name comes from a phrase invented in the first game, played in 1925 by Marcel Duchamp, Yves Tanguy, Jacques Prévert, and André Breton: “Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau” (the exquisite corpse will drink the new wine). [Each player draws on a sheet of paper, folds the paper to conceal what they have drawn, and passes it to the next player] With “HOT BOD” we’ve put a spin on the old form. Participants have ping-ponged their contributions across the country via the United States Postal Service, drawing out a wide network of artists, and opening up what is traditionally an insular, enclosed gathering at a discrete moment in time. In this instance, the exhibition becomes a map of the geographic and artistic network that the drawings have traversed on their way back to Basket Books & Art. 

On August 20, 2024, Glasstire featured an article by Brandon Zech about this exhibition: “A Group Show to End All Group Shows: “HOT BOD” at Basket Books & Art, Houston”