This beautifully illustrated publication documents artist Nekisha Durrett’s immersive exhibition True Grit at James Madison University’s Duke Gallery. With the words “Watch Me Bless This House” spelled out in 14-foot-high panels crusted with the red clay from her home base of Washington, D.C., Durrett’s installation inverts the association of true grit with the macho swagger and "frontier justice" in the Western film of the same title and instead honors the power of place-making, African American resistance to genocide, and the strength of family matriarchs who understand an altogether different “true grit.”

This volume includes essays by sociologist Zandria Robinson and exhibit curator Beth Hinderliter that contextualize Durrett’s haunting installation, a work that engages in storytelling and a poetic study of language by creating monuments to the power of memory.

Distributed for Duke Gallery at James Madison University