Curatorial narratives about artists who died prematurely sometimes make the mistake of magnifying the significance of illness. The life and work of an artist—often one who is being rediscovered after years at the margins—can become wrongfully overdetermined by the tragic circumstances surrounding their death.

Because Mary Ann Unger (1945–1998) passed away at the age of fifty-three after a thirteen-year battle with breast cancer, one might be tempted to treat the artist—whose distinctive abstract sculptures and works on paper examine transcultural histories, imagery, and environmental issues—in