MISSING DEPARTMENT
works by Ligia Bouton and Matt Donovan​

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MISSING DEPARTMENT
visual works by Ligia Bouton + poetry by Matt Donovan
November 10 - December 10, 2022

Artists Reception:  Friday, November 11: 5-8 pm (Arts Night Out)
Student Poetry Reading: Friday, December 9: 7:30-9pm (SEE BELOW)

MISSING DEPARTMENT, a collaborative exhibition by artist Ligia Bouton and writer Matt Donovan, uses visual art and poetry to respond to missing person ads that were placed in pulp fiction magazines from the early 20th-century. This diptych series responds to a selection of widely varied ads that, in raw and intimate language, seek forgiveness, solace, answers, and connections from vanished spouses, lovers, friends, siblings, and children. The show features drawings, paintings, sculptures, and collages created from the magazine’s original paper, as well as letterpress poems made from erasures of pulp fiction stories. Through elaborate interventions with the magazine’s material and language, this expansive exhibition interrogates desire, empathy, and loss. 

In addition to the displayed artwork and poems, this exhibition will culminate in a reading at A.P.E. by student poets from Mount Holyoke and Smith College on Friday, December 9th, 7-9pm


Ligia Bouton’s artwork has been shown in numerous galleries and museums, including the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Guildhall Art Gallery in London, and SITE Santa Fe. Bouton is an Associate Professor of Studio Art at Mount Holyoke College. Matt Donovan is the author, most recently, of the collection of poems The Dug-Up Gun Museum (BOA, 2022). He serves as the Director of the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College.

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