This 24 page booklet was created in conjunction with Jana Seven’s Dear Death show hosted by the Morbid Anatomy Library, March 31- April 2, 2023. Contained are photographs taken by John Seven of all of the art and the words that connect and inspired each piece.

Dear Death is a letter written from contemporary folk artist Jana Seven to Death. By writing this letter in the form of art, the artist is attempting to reconcile herself with Death’s inevitability.

The collection includes pieces of art that recollect children’s toys; a Jack in the Box, a doll house, hand puppets, but when we look closer we notice that Death is lurking in every corner. The dollhouse is actually a Victorian medical classroom with students dissecting a corpse, the Jack in the Box delivers a sad reminder of our end, the wooden horse and cart carries the body of a dead woman.

Jana Seven is a self-taught artist living in New England. Her work pulls from nature, dreams, and folk tales. An obsessive fascination with the past, and the beauty and importance of decay pervades her thoughts and haunts her work. Jana’s art can be found in private collections throughout the world.