3. A Poetry of Odd Opposition 1
by Glen R. Brown
To the left, a feathery divi-divi tree grows absurdly slanted in the trade winds
sweeping the island of Aruba; to the right, a horizontal plume of smoke escapes
a factory stack on the windy industrial flats of Cleveland: in the juxtaposition of
these uncannily similar yet dissimilar images from one of Mary Jo Bole’s pictorial
books lies a useful synopsis of her art. The tree, a living emblem of perseverance,
and the smoke, a noxious symbol of dispersion, encapsulate not just the general
qualities of permanence and impermanence but also the strange, insoluble symmetry
between them. The wind, the agent in this revelation, is an intangible energy only
evident through its effects on a diverse array of media. As a metaphor in Bole’s
work, the wind plucks things up, carries them off and deposits them together in
extraordinary ways and in the process opens gaps in the blank wall encircling the
ordinary perception of things. This metaphor deals not in the declarative but in
the ambiguous: the vaguely grasped insights that arise from odd analogies and
ostensible quirks of fate. It wreaks havoc with logical oppositions such as ugliness
and beauty, making one seem to appear within the other. Most importantly, it
unsettles the conventional perspectives that placate the mind and prevent thought
from wandering after inexplicable desires and confronting unnamed fears.
In Bole’s art most viewers are likely to encounter an unsettling quality arising
not from the artist’s tendency to sensationalize the ultimate fear — to raise the
“Divi Divi Tree” and “Smoke”, Bole’s introduction page from the book Rust/Rest,
1996, conceived and organized by Mary Jo Bole, Berry van Boekel and Birdie repressed specter of death with a coarseness that would be relatively easy to dismiss
Thaler, 7 1⁄2 x 8 inches, hardcover book, edition of 400, signed by the artists;
stencil print: Knust Press (Extrapool), The Netherlands. Photo: Tony Walsh. — but rather to embrace the fear of death in the way that some people make pets
of tarantulas or poisonous reptiles, developing a kind of fondness out of familiarity.
As a child Bole lived near Cleveland’s Lakeview cemetery: a shortcut to the local
bakery, the “private park” where she walked her dog, and the resting place of

4. 2 “old aunties” and other relatives whose names — Winifred, Gertrude, Matilda, 3
Ludmilla — evoked a musty Victorian world of heavy lace, mourning jewelry,
finger bowls and dark drapery. With lurid fascination, at the age of six Bole
discovered, buried among her father’s record collection, a copy of Dear Dead
Days, a volume of Charles Addams’s macabre and freakish source-material for
his Addams Family cartoons. Later, Michael Lesy’s Wisconsin Death Trip, a photo-
graphic and journalistic record of dementia, alcoholism, assaults, and funerals in
a turn-of-the-century Wisconsin township, reinforced her association of time with
a transformation of the ordinary into the “exotic, singular, and strange.”
Although Bole has penned essays for the magazine Morbid Curiosity and an
anthology entitled Death’s Garden, her own books are primarily pictorial. Like
the valises of Marcel Duchamp, they contain images that both document and
transform her earlier works, not simply by reinterpreting them through heavily
stylized representation. Bole’s books also contextualize these earlier works amid Initially
cryptic references to sources of inspiration while comparing and contrasting them Thankful Subjects, 1997, inspired by her father’s pas-
5 3⁄4 x 10 1⁄4 inches, softcover book,
to parallel images. The earliest of these books, Rust/Rest, a 1996 collaboration edition of 230, signed by the artist; time, the references to stamp collecting were
stencil print: Knust Press (Extrapool),
with then husband Berry van Boekel and artist Birdie Thaler, jumbles bridges The Netherlands. Photo: Tony Walsh. expanded and given greater conceptual complexity in Bole and
and rainbows together with Trees of Life, Faiyum death portraits, rains of van Boekel’s second collaborative book, Splitting Pictures. Composed of stencil-
sperm, haloes of flowers, and tombstone panoramas. The allusions to photo printed, scored pages, complete with gummed backing, the book was realized
albums and scrapbooks are overt. More subtle are the implications of a through the contributions of thirty artists from five countries, each of whom
stamp collector’s portfolio, introduced as a concept near the beginning of produced unique stamp images for the project. The concept of a circulating art,
the book through the image of a nineteenth-century Spanish postage stamp something capable of breaking from the pages of the compendium and dispersing
provided by van Boekel and revived at its end through an affixed cello- itself across the contexts of the external world, reverses the acquisitive metaphor
phane envelope that actually contains artist’s stamps for the viewer’s use. of the scrapbook and makes Splitting Pictures more a point of departure than a
site of summation. Bole, however, seems more at home with the practice of gath-
ering disparate images together, and her next book, a solo effort titled Thankful
Subjects, is a collection of rust-belt sketches, photographs of funereal sculpture
and pithy bits of text describing activities such as scavenging washed-up debris on
the shores of Lake Erie or collecting old “bricks, quack medical devices, 45s, light
Stamp sheet from the book Rust/Rest (collaboration with
switch plates, aprons, hand-painted souvenir plates, purses, zines, stamps, religious
Berry van Boekel and Birdie Thaler), 1996.
doo-dads, printed board games, souvenirs in general, Lake Erie glass, thrift store
paintings, postcards, barbed wire….”

5. 4 To this list of melancholy cast-offs, salvage, and ephemera can be added a host of
mortuary imagery and paraphernalia. Bole has long been fascinated by the pathos
of the contradiction between the reality of human materiality and the aspirations
of consciousness to overcome it that funerary monuments embody. A self-stylized
cemetery aficionado, she has made an on-going research activity of visiting tombs,
graves, crypts, mausoleums, catacombs, cenotaphs and other sites associated with
commemoration of the deceased. This interest has given rise to a series of major
sculptures and installations relating to mortuary monuments. Despite their culti-
vated morbidity, these works are not celebrations of death. Bole’s sculptures are
perhaps best regarded as palliatives, a means of diminishing the psychological
power of death by endeavoring to understand it more intimately. In this process
she does not assume bravado or adopt the lampooning attitude that is found, for
example, in Día de los Muertos skeletal caricatures. Her purpose instead is to
confront the real human emotions that arise from the loss of loved ones, although
she necessarily adopts a somewhat detached, if not actually disinterested, perspec-
tive on those emotions.
Bole’s foray into the production of ersatz funerary monuments began more than below: Cemetery in Dubuque, Iowa
[inspirational source for Tree of Life
ten years ago. Her important 1993 exhibition My Yard (at the Wexner Center (Future Tense)]. Photo: Mary Jo Bole.
for the Arts) included a monument devoted to the poignant commemoration right: Tree of Life (Future Tense),
1991–93, bronze, photo decals,
of deceased children, while another monument of sorts, Tree of Life — Future china paint on porcelain monument
plaques, ficus tree, 76 x 73 x 57 inches.
Photo: Tony Walsh.
Tense, a 1600-pound bronze form containing a living red oak sapling, evoked the
same theme metaphorically. The concept of preserving something
fragile and fleeting beyond the corruptive forces of touch or even
the outside air carried over into the two obelisk-shaped “koche-
lofens” also featured in the exhibition. Bole’s original intention
was to encase these faux mortuary sculptures in delicate and airy
wood-framed-glass membranes, a plan first formulated through

6. 6 some early sketches the artist made in graduate Bole incorporated hand-blown German glass to 7
school. The disappointing results of her initial achieve the gently undulating surface effect
attempt to realize these enclosures, which that she recalled from visits to Cleveland’s
seemed heavy and tank-like in contrast to her glass-enclosed memorial to assassinated
vision, were ultimately omitted from the exhibi- president James Garfield. The title My
tion. Bole, however, acquired the necessary First Dutch Lesson derives from the
skills for working with leaded glass that residency during which she acquired
same year during an artist residency at her glass-working skills. It refers to
the Europees Keramisch Werkcentrum Bole’s introduction to the Dutch lan-
’s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands. guage, which occurred on the grounds
Since then, she has relied on expert aid of a cemetery she had stopped to visit on
with the more complicated aspects of such the drive from the airport to the Centre.
work. Without this assistance, as well as No dictionary was needed to translate the
the more general help of a host of factories, phrase “Hier rust...” with which began the mournful epitaphs on many of the
friends and students over the years, tombstones. In reference to the similarity between the Dutch “rust” and the
Bole contends that her most English “rest” — not only phonetically but in terms of the euphemism associated
ambitious works could never with the loving interment of a human body — Bole incorporated the words in
have been realized. bold relief on either side of the pedestal beneath the paired lambs. This kind of
left: Signs of Embracing, 1993, bronze, cultural connection, which for Bole represents the universality of certain attitudes
mosaic with silicone grout, photo
The major sculptures that Bole has decals, china paint on porcelain toward life and death, has accounted for many of the distinctive formal character-
monument plaques, slip cast tile,
produced since the mid-1990s have con- cement, “lucky” stones & wood,
156 x 53 x 53 inches. From the
istics that her sculptures have acquired. One of the most intriguing of these
tinued to explore the process of memorializing exhibition My Yard, Wexner Center
for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio.
is her tendency to compose some works by heaping up
Photo: Richard K. Loesch.
the dead, often through mosaic making. This laborious technique was, for example, a profusion of similar forms, a practice inspired by
right top: My First Dutch Lesson,
employed to form the distressing images of grief on the floor of her 1997–99 1997–99, mosaic, leaded glass, bronze, memories of a 1991 visit to the astounding “Hill
silicone, carbide refactory, glass beads
enclosed-glass sculpture, My First Dutch Lesson. In this work, a pair of tessarae- on wire & ceramic, 36 x 60 x 36 inches. of Crosses” near Siauliai in Lithuania, a site
Photo: Tony Walsh.
covered lambs set on a stepped pedestal symbolically attest to the innocence of which Bole has described as the “most
bottom: My First Dutch Lesson (detail).
the deceased. These gentle creatures and the mosaic base beneath them are Photo: Heather Protz. moving spot on the globe.”
encased in a seemingly airless space of a transparent cupola. In this structure,

7. The innumerable crosses studding the 9
Lithuanian hill like hairs on the back
of a recumbent beast produced for Bole
a powerful evocation of the vastness of
death and the legions that it has con-
sumed. In an early attempt to harness
this rhetorical potential — a poignant
sculpture titled Nipped Buds in which
a gently rounded mound of children’s
mittens reflects upon the vast numbers
of premature deaths — she employed
the multiple in an obviously metonymi-
cal fashion. In her more recent work,
however, multiplicity has formed a
subtler connection to mortality, as in
the whimsically titled Odd Luck — a
colossal u-shaped heap composed of
thousands of slip-cast black porcelain
horseshoes of varying sizes. Here the
forms suggest not lives in themselves
but rather the diverse hopes for perpet-
uating those lives: the various optimisms
about evading death that are ultimately
as impotent as the lucky horseshoes
that represent those hopes. Embedded
in the dark tangle of porcelain good-
luck charms are plaques upon which
left: Hill of Crosses, Lithuania (inspirational source for Nipped
Buds). Photo: Mary Jo Bole.
above: Nipped Buds, 1993; floor piece: slip cast porcelain
over airplane nose cone, 36 x 48 x 48 inches; wall piece:
mosaic on wood, 30 x 40 x 3 inches. From the exhibition
My Yard, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio.
Photo: Richard K. Loesch.

8. 10 Bole has inscribed images and phrases that characterize life as a game of chance
in which some draw longer straws than others, but none can ever hope to win.
While works like Odd Luck reflect only abstractly on death, the 2000 sculpture
Granny’s Necklace, conceived as a memorial bench, is intimately tied to Bole’s above left: Odd Luck, 1997–2000,
mosaic, bone china, “twist of fate”
haunted sense of her own deceased ancestors and their legacy in her life. Having monument plaques with computer
process decals and china paint on
grown up in an environment redolent of Victorianism and rememberance, she porcelain, 19 x 102 x 112 inches.
Photo: Tony Walsh.
chose to top her bronze commemorative bench with a ceramic mosaic depicting above right: “Twist of fate” monument
plaque (detail from Odd Luck).
portrait photographs of nineteenth-century women. In the Photo: Chas Ray Krider.
beads of a pearl necklace, which runs like a Roman guil-
loche pattern around the borders of the image, she
repeated a series of faces of Victorian ladies who,
right: Granny’s Necklace (A Bench), 1997–2000, mosaic with
silicone grout, bronze, wood, 17 x 56 x 41 1⁄2 inches.
Collection of Pamela & Steve Hootkin, NYC.
Photo: Chas Ray Krider.
opposite: Granny’s Necklace (A Bench) detail.
Photo: Chas Ray Krider.

9. 12 due to the inherent limitations of working with tesserae, appeared as distinct Odd Luck. Only later did she discover, after fortuitously encountering some 13
though related. At the center of the mosaic, she constructed a collage incorporating examples in a Cleveland pet cemetery, that the J. A. Dedouch Company was
an old postcard image depicting three famous Rochester sisters who took the producing traditionally hand-colored photographic tomb plaques much closer
nineteenth-century oddities stage by storm with their luxuriously long to home. Devising a residency for herself at the company’s Chicago factory, she
tresses — a picture of vanity and the brevity of human learned the laborious technique of transferring photo-
beauty, to be sure, but also an ironic symbol of graphic images to enamel plaques; she then
immortality, since human hair can in fact utilized her skills to produce a number
be preserved indefinitely. of these for incorporation into subse-
quent works. Inset into her larger
The themes of vanity and sculptures, the elliptical convex
preservation — ephemerality plaques are evocative of
and immortality — are cemetery portraits but also
recurrent in Bole’s art, of jewelry: lustrous cabo-
generally in a curious chons or the crystalline
reciprocity. She notes, for domes guarding cherished
example, the irony in the portraits in lockets.
“attempt to cheat fate and
live vicariously through the The mourning brooch —
pretentiousness of your made stylish during Queen
death marker.” Two recent Victoria’s interminable show
sculptures — Great Granny’s of grief for the deceased Prince
Mourning Brooch and Ossified Albert — is the embodiment of the
Alliance — explore this idea in rela- impermanence of vanity and the perma-
tion to the photographic portrait plaques nence of death. In Great Granny’s Mourning
still made for some cemeteries. In the early Brooch, an eight-foot circular sculpture in which an
1990s Bole worked with an Italian company to pro- immense enameled-steel plaque is surrounded by a carved brick
duce such plaques so she could specifically integrate them into her sculptures, and opposite: Great Granny’s Mourning bezel inset with smaller plaque adornments, the jewel becomes a funereal monu-
Brooch, 2003–05, enamel on steel,
in 2000 she traveled to Vicenza to make the “Twist of Fate” porcelain plaques for Belden brick, bronze, 8 monument ment. The central image, repeated on the smaller plaques, hearkens back to the
plaques (photogenic drawings: enamel,
china paint on copper), 8 x 84 x 84
inches. Photo: Chas Ray Krider.
above: Ossified Alliance, 2003–05,
enamel on steel, Belden brick,
6 3⁄4 x 47 x 42 inches.
Photo: Tony Walsh.

10. 14 mound of mittens in Nipped Buds. Representing a rectangular life-sized field of In the end, Bole’s singular art cannot
snow-white children’s socks, it connotes purity, innocence and small lives. For be denied this kind of optimism born
Bole the sculpture is primarily a reflection upon lineage: the long dead of the dark of pessimism. Optimism is the source
past and the burgeoning of new lives. The implications of mourning are for Bole of much of the humor that shares
relevant both to the deceased generations who came before and to the descendents space with pathos in her observations
that she has not left to carry on. Children, after all, are one’s living memorials: on life. Her newest artist’s book, MJ’s
themselves mortal but at the same time invested with a parent’s hope of vicarious Daily Spy History — hot off the Knust
lingering after death. press in the Netherlands — contains
ample evidence of each. A record of
In Bole’s work as a whole, the relationship between the brevity of life and the Bole’s musings during a 2004 residency
will to sustain some aspect of it eternally is a recurrent theme that lifts her efforts in Dresden, the Spy History was
above the level of mere morbid fascination. If the ultimate inability to escape originally painted on the pages of a
death’s grasp confirms the tragic in human nature, the attempt to do so — at two-and-a-half by three-inch blank
least vicariously — has undeniably accounted for some of the heights of human book purchased from a German street
achievement. Brevity begets longevity; mortality inspires the vendor. The minuteness of this volume
immortal. This paradox is perhaps most evident in the great only amplifies the expansiveness of
mortuary monuments of the past: the colossal tomb of Bole’s thoughts as they radiate across
Rameses II, the vast terracotta army at Xian, the glorious history (from Augustus the Strong’s
New Sacristy of San Lorenzo, or any of thousands of similar purported creation of three-hundred
examples. The paradoxical principle, however, is implicitly offspring to the death of thousands
at work in all aspects of creativity. Bole’s sepulchral sculp- caused by incendiary bombs in 1945);
tures do not acquiesce pessimistically in the inevitability language (idioms such as “the black hole of summer” and neologisms such as the
of death but rather affirm the poet Wallace Stevens’s obser- Euro-critical “Teuro”); customs (candy-filled cones “to sweeten the first days of
vation that ‘death is the mother of beauty’. In Bole’s work, opposite: Mary Jo Bole working in school before they turn sour”); and oddities (a hair shield, the freak-antler room
her Columbus studio on mosaic for
the theme of human mortality is ultimately a prelude to Winifred, Ruth, Winifred (a companion at the Moritzburg Schloss). The images prompted by
work to Granny’s Necklace). Photo:
confirmation of the potential for transcendence through Kevin Fitzsimons (from On Campus, OSU these diverse claims on the attention are exemplary
publication, 1/6/05 edition).
art, a triumph that is only possible because life itself is a above: Dead Flowers as Incendiary
of Bole’s art, which in its scavenging and juxtaposing
losing proposition. (detail), 2004, photo retouch paint,
watercolor, coffee, rubbing alcohol,
is always intuitive, strange, and revelatory.
28 x 33 inches.
right: “Dancing ladies” from MJ’s Daily Glen R. Brown is associate professor of art history
Spy History, 2004–05, original water-
color book available as: 3 x 2 1⁄2 inch at Kansas State University.
softcover book, edition of 400, signed
by the artist; 4 3⁄4 x 3 7⁄8 inch softcover
book, edition of 100, signed by the
artist; stencil print: Knust Press
(Extrapool), The Netherlands.

11. Mary Jo Bole DEAR LITTLE TWIST OF FATE Sculptures, Drawings and Bookworks by Mary Jo Bole
16 November 18, 2005 — January 14, 2006 17
Teaching 2005 Full Professor, Department of Art,
Alice F. & Harris K. WESTON ART GALLERY Aronoff Center for the Arts 650 Walnut St., Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
Artist in Residence 2005 Residency at Knust Press, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 2000 Artist in Residence; Sanitary ware “Gustavsberg”
2001–05 Residency at Belden Brick Company, Sugar Creek, Factory, Stockholm, Sweden
Ohio (self-organized) 1999 Artist in Residence; Women’s Studio Workshop, 1. Odd Luck, 1997–2000, mosaic, bone 12. The Perforating Machine at Knust Press, 23. Wilted Flowers: Winifred’s Lilacs,
Dresden Artist in Residence Exchange Program, Rosendale, New York china, “twist of fate” monument plaques 1997, watercolor, 14 1⁄8 x 17 inches 2004, 4 photogenic drawings: enamel,
The Greater Columbus Arts Council, Columbus, (Andy Warhol Foundation Grant)
with computer process decals and china china paint on copper, (3) 7 x 5 inches,
Ohio 1993 Artist in Resident Europees Keramisch paint on porcelain, 19 x 102 x 112 inches 13. Rust Rest, 1996, conceived and organ- (1) 5 x 7 inches; 1 photogenic drawing:
2003/04 Dedouch Monument Plaque Company, Chicago, Werkcentrum ’s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands ized by Mary Jo Bole, Berry van Boekel enamel, china paint on steel, 10 x 8 inches
Illinois (self-organized) 1988/89 Artist in Residence; John Michael Kohler Arts 2. My First Dutch Lesson, 1997–99, and Birdie Thaler, 7 1⁄2 x 8 inches,
2002 Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, Center at the Kohler Factory, Kohler, Wisconsin mosaic with silicone grout, leaded glass, hardcover book, edition of 400, signed 24. Study for Yesterday’s Owl, 2003,
California (sponsored by the Ohio Arts Council) bronze, carbide refactory, glass beads on by the artists; stencil print: Knust Press 2 photogenic drawings (brown, green):
wire & ceramic, 36 x 60 x 36 inches (Extrapool), The Netherlands enamel, china paint on copper,
Solo Exhibitions 2002 “Dear Little Twists of Fate”, Seigfred Hall, 1995 Ann Nathen Gallery; Chicago, Illinois 5 x 7 inches each
School of Art, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 1993 “My Yard” Installation in Gallery, B; The Wexner 3. A Child’s Metamorphosis, 1994–96, 14. Dead Flowers as Incendiary, 2002–03,
2001 “Relics & Reliqueries”, William Busta Gallery, Center for the Performing and Visual Arts; leaded glass, bronze, glass beads on photo retouch paint, watercolor, coffee, 25. Bench Moulding Study for Granny’s
Cleveland, Ohio The Ohio State University; Columbus, Ohio wire, mosaic, wood, refractory, Necklace, 2000, photo retouch paint,
10 x 25 5⁄8 inches
2000 The Barth Galleries, Columbus, Ohio 59 x 55 x 55 inches watercolor, 17 1⁄2 x 22 3⁄4 inches.
15. Dead Flowers as Incendiary, 2002–03, Collection of Christine Strehl.
Selected Group 2005 “A Matter of Place”, Pomerene Center for the Arts, 2002 “Connections: Ohio Artists Abroad” organized by 4. Thankful Subjects, 1997, 5 3⁄4 x 10 1⁄4 photo retouch paint, watercolor, coffee,
Exhibitions Coshocton, Ohio the Ohio Arts Council, Curated by Susan Channing, inches, softcover book, edition of 230, 26. Study for Hair, 2004, 2 photogenic
Riffe Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, (Catalogue), Spaces 19 1⁄2 x 24 7⁄8 inches
“A Tale to Tell”, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, signed by the artist; stencil print: Knust drawings (white, tawny): enamel, china
Sheboygan, Wisconsin Gallery, Cleveland and the Weston Art Gallery, paint on copper, 7 x 5 inches each
Press (Extrapool), The Netherlands 16. Dead Flowers as Incendiary, 2004,
Cincinnati, Ohio
2003 “The Vitrified Image”, International Invitational photo retouch paint, watercolor, coffee,
curated by Paul Scott (UK), Hyde Art Gallery, “Materials Speculations”, The H&R Building, 5. Tree of Life (Future Tense), 1991–93, 27. MJ’s Daily Spy History, 2004–05,
The Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, rubbing alcohol, 28 x 33 inches
Grossmont College, El Cajon, California bronze, photo decals, china paint on original watercolor book available as:
Missouri, (Catalogue Essays by Donald Kuspit and porcelain monument plaques, ficus tree, 3 x 2 1⁄2 inch softcover book, edition
“Are you sitting comfortably?”, The Water Closet Roger Brown) 17. Study for Dead Flowers as Incendiary,
Workshop, The Bowes Museum, England, The 76 x 73 x 57 inches 2003, drawing: enamel, china paint on of 400, signed by the artist; 4 3⁄4 x 3 7⁄8
Collins Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland, The Hatton copper, 5 x 7 inches inch softcover book, edition of 100,
Gallery, Newcastle University, England 6. Winifred’s Lilacs, Quadrant, 2005, signed by the artist; stencil print: Knust
enamel on steel, 24 x 18 inches 18. Study for Dead Flowers as Incendiary, Press (Extrapool), The Netherlands
Selected Grants 2004 Ohio Arts Council Project Grant, Columbus, Ohio 2002 Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial
Fund Inc., New York, New York 7. Winifred’s Lilacs, 2004, photogenic 2004, 2 photogenic drawings (blue,
2002 Level II Grant, College of the Arts, The Ohio State 28. MJ’s Daily Spy History, 2004–05,
University, Columbus, Ohio 2000 Ohio Arts Council Individual Fellowship Grant drawing: enamel, china paint on copper, brown): enamel, china paint on copper,
3 gang–printed page samples;
(in the Visual Arts) 7 x 5 inches 5 x 7 inches each
Individual Fellowship Grant, The Greater stencil print: Knust Press (Extrapool)
Columbus Arts Council, Columbus, Ohio 1999 Andy Warhol Foundation Grant through Women’s The Netherlands
8. Yesterday’s Owl (A Rug), 2003, Belden 19. Wilted Flowers: Winifred’s Magnolia,
Studio Workshop, Rosendale, New York
brick, 4 3⁄4 x 50 1⁄2 x 43 1⁄2 inches 2003–04, 5 photogenic drawings 29. MJ’s Daily Spy History, 2004–05,
Selected Publications 2004 Morbid Curiosity, Issue 8, “Lasting Images by 1998 “Howling at the Edge of a Renaissance, Spaces and (chocolate, prune, blue black, black 6 page enlargements; stencil print:
and Catalogues Bole”, Pgs 54–56, Automotism Press, San Alternative Art in Cleveland,” Spaces Gallery 9. Granny’s Necklace (A Bench), blue, caramel): enamel, china paint on Knust Press (Extrapool) The
Francisco, California Cleveland, Ohio 1997–2000, mosaic, bronze, wood, copper, 7 x 5 inches each Netherlands
2001 Morbid Curiosity, Issue 5, Automatism Press, Morbid Curiosity, Issue 2, “Smiling at Death: The 17 x 56 x 41 1⁄2 inches. Collection of
San Francisco, California Fine Art of Mary Jo Bole” (Interview), Automatism Pamela & Steve Hootkin, NYC 20. Snowflakes, Ohio, Headlands, Path, 30. Owls, 1996, photo retouch paint,
“Watercloset Workshop” Rohsska Museet, Press, San Francisco, California 2002, photo retouch paint, watercolor, watercolor, 15 x 14 inches
Goteborg, Sweden 1995 “Deaths Garden”, Automatism Press, 10. Ossified Alliance, 2003–05, enamel on coffee, rubbing alcohol, 20 x 29 1⁄2 inches
Loren Rhoads, Editor. steel, Belden brick, 6 3⁄4 x 47 x 42 inches 31. Bat, 1996, photo retouch paint,
21. Snowflakes, 2003, photogenic drawing: watercolor, 13 x 15 inches
Collections 2005 The Museum of Modern Art (Artist Book 1998 The Museum of Modern Art (Artist Book 11. Splitting Pictures, 1997, conceived and enamel, china paint on copper,
Collection Archive) New York, New York Collection Archive) New York, New York organized by Mary Jo Bole and Berry 7 x 5 inches 32. San Francisco Bay Area Cemetery
2004 The Gustavsberg Factory Collection, The Getty Museum (Artist Book Collection) van Boekel, 8 1⁄2 x 11 3⁄8 inches softcover Research Diner Mugs, 2002, 3 mugs
Stockholm, Sweden Los Angeles, California book, edition of 350, signed by the 22. Sole Heir, 2004–05, photo retouch (pet cemetery; Colma, CA cemetery;
1999 Robert J. Shiffler Collection & Archive, Dayton, Ohio artists; stencil print: Knust Press paint, watercolor, coffee, rubbing nipped buds): Buffalo china, china paint,
(Extrapool), The Netherlands alcohol, 28 x 33 inches decals, 4 x 4 1⁄2 x 3 1⁄2 inches each
Education 1982 M.F.A., New York College of Ceramics at Alfred 1979 B.F.A., Cum Laude; University of Michigan;
University; Alfred, New York Ann Arbor, Michigan

12. Thank You
Thanks to Maureen Bloomfield, Ruth Bole, Willi Born, Carmel Buckley, Randi Channel,
Malcolm Cochran, Beth Coleman, Katie Collins, Todd DeVriese, Krista Grecco, Chris Gose,
Marthe Grohman, Mark Harris, Tim Hutchinson, Michelle Lewin, Dana Marshall, Kami
Meighan, Shauna Merriman, Sarah Myers, Ryuji Noda, Benjamin Organick, Thomas
Piontek, Petra Schilder, Rhian Kelly-Simon, Paul Simon, Berry van Boekel, Wim van
Vonderen and everyone else who has helped me over the years.
Belden Brick Company, especially John Belden, Kevin Fruchey, Doug Mutschelkanaus,
Jeff McIntire, Jim Meyers, Gary Stein, Bill Swinderman and Don Weaver
The College of the Arts, The Ohio State University
The J.A. Dedouch Company, especially, Vicki Jones, George Musinski
and Dick Stannerd
Installation view: Upper Gallery (left), East Gallery (right).
Photos: Tony Walsh. The Greater Columbus Art Council and the Dresden Residency Exchange Program.
Kunsthaus Raskolnikow (gallery and pension [where I stayed]) especially Iduna Böhning
33. Wilted Flowers: Gilda’s Euphorbia 41. California Topiary, 1997, photo retouch 52. Headlands Barracks Provocative The Ohio Arts Council, especially Susan dePasquale and Ken Emerick
(Fresh to Ossified), 2003–04, paint, watercolor, 13 1⁄4 x 18 3⁄4 inches Toilets, 2004, drawing: enamel, china
5 photogenic drawings: enamel, china paint on copper, 5 x 7 inches Everyone at Knust Press, (Extrapool) The Netherlands, especially Alfred Boland,
paint on copper, 7 x 5 inches each 42. California Topiary, 1997, photo retouch
paint, watercolor, 14 1⁄4 x 18 3⁄4 53. Headlands Barracks Provocative
Jan Dirk de Wilde, Joyce Guley and Jolanda Wijdezen
34. Wilted Flowers: Winifred’s Bleeding Toilets, 2004, photogenic drawing:
43. Dead Bugs, 1999, photo retouch paint, The staff of the Weston Art Gallery: Dennis Harrington, director; Kelly O’Donnell,
Heart, 2003–04, 5 photogenic drawings enamel, china paint on copper,
(green, mint, red, smoke, lime): enamel, watercolor, coffee, 17 x 22 3⁄4 inches 5 x 7 inches assistant director; and gallery assistants, Sara McDulin and Allen Smith
china paint on copper, (1) 5 x 7 inches, 44. Dead Bugs, 2004, photo retouch paint, 54. Suicide-Resistant Toilet, 2005, Belden The Weston Art Gallery installation crew: Sharon Buckner, Stephanie Cooper,
(4) 7 x 5 inches watercolor, coffee, 23 1⁄2 x 29 1⁄2 inches brick, 18 x 25 x 9 1⁄2 inches Chad Cully, Rob Deslongchamps, Rolf Kuhn, Tim McMichael, Alan Sauer,
35. Smothered, 2004–05, photo retouch 45. Dead Bugs, 1999, photo retouch paint, Allen Smith and Patrick Williams
paint, watercolor, coffee, rubbing 55. Tiny Sink, 2005, Belden brick,
watercolor, coffee, 17 x 22 3⁄4 inches 8 1⁄2 x 7 1⁄2 x 8 1⁄2 inches
alcohol, 28 x 33 inches Lenders to the exhibition: Pamela & Steve Hootkin and Christine Strehl
46. Wall of Drawings, 1961–2005 56. Barracks Toilets at Headlands, 2003,
36. Family Portraits, Now and Then, 2004, Exhibition Sponsors: Barbara & Gates Moss and the Weston Art Gallery Support Committee
photo retouch paint, watercolor, coffee, 47. Toilets for Your Friends, 2005, 9 x 12 photo retouch paint, watercolor,
rubbing alcohol, 28 x 33 inches inch stamp sheet edition of 300, signed 22 x 27 1⁄2 inches 2005–06 Weston Art Gallery Season Sponsors: Jackie & Mitch Meyers
by the artist; stencil print: Knust Press and Starbucks Coffee Company
37. We Will Go to Nature: Love Lies (Extrapool), The Netherlands
Bleeding (I–VIII), 2003–04, 8 photo- Alice F. & Harris K. WESTON ART GALLERY
genic drawings: enamel, china paint on 48. Gustausburg Factory Souvenir Blanks,
Aronoff Center for the Arts 650 Walnut St., Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2517
copper, 7 x 5 inches each 2001, 2 factory blanks, silkscreen decals,
china paint, 5 x 3 x 4 inches each www.CincinnatiArts.ORG/Weston WestonArtGallery@CincinnatiArts.ORG
38. So Long: Leaching, Fuming, 2004–05, Ph: 513.977.4165 Fax: 513.977.4182
pâte de verre, soapstone, 18 x 31 x 2 49. Headlands Barracks Provocative Toilets
inches Diner Mug, 2002, Buffalo china, china So Long: Leaching, Fuming, 2004–05, pâte de verre, soapstone,
18 x 31 x 2 inches. Photo: Tony Walsh. Since opening in 1995, the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art
paint, decals, 4 x 4 1⁄2 x 3 1⁄2 inches
39. Nipped Buds, 2003–04, 4 photogenic Gallery has established a reputation for innovative programming, award-winning publica-
drawings (blue, blood, brown, moss): 50. History of Penal Institution Sanitation, The artist would like to acknowledge the J.A. tions and museum-quality exhibitions. A catalyst for, and integral member of, the Cincinnati
enamel, china paint on copper, 2 Views, 2000–01, Kohler prison sink Dedouch Company which was west of Chicago in
arts community, the Weston Art Gallery’s mission is to present and support the visual arts
7 x 5 inches (Chilton™ model), silkscreen decals, Oak Park, Illinois since the late 19th century and
closed on March 1, 2004. Monument plaques were
of the tri-state region through exhibitions and special programs. Its objectives are to foster
china paint, 18 x 15 x 15 inches
40. Great Granny’s Mourning Brooch, made by Bole at a makeshift residency at Dedouch an awareness and appreciation of the visual arts among area residents, and to support the
2003–05, enamel on steel, Belden brick, 51. Alcatraz Cell with Kohler Prison from June 2003 to March 1, 2004. Bole refers to development of professional and emerging artists of the region.
bronze, 8 monument plaques (photo- Fixtures, 2004, photogenic drawing: them as photogenic drawings; a term used by the
genic drawings: enamel, china paint on enamel, china paint on copper, earliest photographers to describe work that is a front cover: Ossified Alliance (detail), 2003–05, enamel on steel, Belden brick, 6 3⁄4 x 47 x 42 inches
copper), 8 x 84 x 84 inches 5 x 7 inches middle ground between photography and drawing.
rear cover: Wilted Flowers: Gilda’s Euphorbia (Fresh to Ossified) (detail), 2003–04, 5 photogenic
drawings: enamel, china paint on copper, 7 x 5 inches each
To view more images from the exhibition, visit www.CincinnatiArts.ORG/Weston