Beverly Buchanan: Ruination and Regeneration

Known for her “shack” sculptures and land installations across her native Georgia, Buchanan embraces Southern vernacular architecture as emblematic of Black American history.

Edited with introduction and text by Aurélie Bernard Wortsman. Foreword by Andrew Edlin. Text by Leigh Arnold, Beverly Buchanan, Andy Campbell, Amelia Groom, Randy Kennedy, Alice Walker, et al.

Published by DelMonico Books with Andrew Edlin Gallery.

At the heart of Beverly Buchanan’s (born 1940) work is a belief in transformation. Her art speaks to cycles of collapse and rebirth—of buildings, of landscapes, of lives. Ruination and Regeneration examines Buchanan’s major bodies of work, including her abstract paintings of 1970s New York, her cast-concrete “frustulas,” her site-specific installations such as Marsh Ruins and her acclaimed “shack” sculptures— tributes to the handmade homes of Black tenant farmers in the rural South. Featuring essays, interviews, poems, archival materials and Buchanan’s own writings, this volume offers a rich and multifaceted reflection of her deeply personal and politically charged oeuvre. Ruination and Regeneration not only honors Buchanan’s legacy but also reframes how we see memory, place and the power of making art from what remains.