Strange and wonderful things are happening at A.P.E. Gallery this month. Printmakers from Zea Mays Printmaking in Florence addressed the idea of systems, and the resulting work provides some brain-tingling invention. Artist Elena Betke-Brunswick explored lunar cycles, and Meredith Broberg upped the astronomical ante further, creating new constellations and star maps. Others explored the nervous system and the archipelago.
If you’d like to be extra sure the NSA reads your email, just drop in a few of the words illustrated by printmaker Annie Bissett (whose work is pictured). She discovered that many of the words referring to the secret programs in the bunkers of the intelligence gatherers were not only strange, but begging to be illustrated, words like “dishfire,” “cultweave,” “evilolive,” “quantumhand,” and the particularly inexplicable “zarf.” The result of her work is an abecedary of spycraft that maintains an air of mystery and brings to mind things like Tarot decks and mah-jongg tiles.
Oct. 10- Nov. 2; reception Oct.10, 5-8 p.m., A.P.E Ltd Gallery, 126 Main St., Northampton, (413) 586-5553, apearts.org.
