Launch Event
Artist Edition Bookends by Bethany Collins
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
6:30 - 8:00 PM
Discussion with Bethany Collins and Hamza Walker
Reveal of the artist edition bookends
with light refreshments
The Brick
518 N. Western Avenue
Free
Join us as we launch and celebrate the second installment in The Brick’s artist designed and created bookend editions with MONUMENTS artist Bethany Collins. All benefits from the sale of these artist editions support The Brick.
Floriography, or the language of flowers, enjoyed a resurgence in 19th c. Victorian England. “Talking bouquets” allowed for the sharing of covert messages otherwise difficult to speak aloud. Between 1827 and 1923, there were at least 98 distinct flower dictionaries in circulation in the U.S. alone.
The language of flowers can also be found in state symbols—from flags and anthems to poetry and official seals—visual representations of a people, their history, and shared values. According to a swath of 19th c. flower dictionaries, Delaware’s official state flower, the peach blossom conveys “I am your captive,” while Louisiana’s iris means “I burn for you” and Alabama’s camellia translates to “my destiny is in your hands.”
Continuing her investigation of the language of flowers, Civil War memory, and American history, Collins has created five unique bookend sculptures from the pink granite base of the Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson monument formerly in Charlottesville, Virginia (decommissioned in 2021 and part of Monuments in 2026.) Each raw bookend pair and accompanying petal or flower reference official state flowers of the American South whose messages sound as much like love letter as indictment.
About the Artist
Bethany Collins is a multidisciplinary artist whose conceptual practice centers language—its biases, contradictions, and ability to simultaneously forge connections and foster violence. By erasing, obscuring, and rewriting portions of text, her works illuminate American histories, offering insight into the nuanced development of racial and national identities.
Collins received an MFA from Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA and a BA from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Upcoming and recent solo museum exhibitions include presentations at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, CO; Seattle Art Museum, WA; Frist Museum, TN; CAM St. Louis, MO; and the Art Institute of Chicago. Upcoming and recent group exhibitions include presentations at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Speed Art Museum, Zimmerli Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, The Renaissance Society, Peabody Essex Museum, The Phillips Collection and the Smart Museum, among many others. She is also the recipient of the 3Arts Next Level Visual Arts Award (2024); Gwendolyn Knight & Jacob Lawrence Prize (2023); Joan Mitchell Fellowship (2022); and The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2015), among others.