For the first installment of the Wattis Institute’s planned trilogy of exhibitions responding to American literary masterpieces, director Jens Hoffmann follows the yellow brick road with a show inspired by L. Frank Baum’s 1900 classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. A cast of twenty-one well-known artists working in sculpture, drawing, photography, film, and video, including Robert Bechtle, Bruce Conner, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Carsten Höller, and Steve McQueen, will contribute some thirty-five works—either extant pieces that address the novel’s themes and iconography, or new work made specifically for the occasion. The show will also take stock of the early reception and interpretation of Baum’s work by presenting, alongside the artworks, ephemera related to the book’s original publication and various film adaptations. Yes, Dorothy’s ruby slippers will be there!

— Philip Auslander