Join The Rocks for a special evening with author and artist Corinne Botz to explore the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death and the fascinating life of Frances Glessner Lee, The Rocks' most famous resident.
Program
5 PM - Opening reception of a special exhibition featuring Corinne Botz's photographs of the Nutshell Studies, as well as the homecoming of the 20th Nutshell Study, owned by the Forest Society, Sitting Room & Woodshed
6 PM - Presentation by Corinne Botz on the Nutshell Studies, the life of Frances Glessner Lee, and her book and photography projects surrounding the two
7 PM - Book signing and refreshments
Frances Glessner Lee spent her childhood summers at The Rocks, where she lived full-time later in her adult life. After her parents and older brother died, Frances used her wealth and new autonomy to endow Harvard with a Department of Legal Medicine. It was at The Rocks in the 1940s that she began to create a set of miniature models depicting highly accurate crime scenes, which she offered for use as police training tools. Frances named her project the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, after an old police saying to "convict the guilty, clear the innocent, and find the truth in a nutshell."
In addition to creating hundreds of photographs of the models, Corinne Botz spent years researching and writing about the incredible female criminologist who conceived and built the models. This seven-year project culminated in an exhibition and a book The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death (The Monacelli Press, 2004). Botz's photographs highlight the models’ painstaking detail, as well as the prominence of female victims.
Join us to celebrate Frances Glessner Lee and the twentieth anniversary of Corinne Botz's book. We are proud to display ten of Botz's photographs from the series, as well as the 20th completed Nutshell Study, Sitting Room & Woodshed.
This event is the first in a series honoring Frances Glessner Lee's legacy as the "mother of forensic science". Save the date for a special screening of a new documentary on the life of Frances Glessner Lee by filmmaker Susan Marks on Saturday, October 19, 2024.
About the Presenter
Corinne Botz is an artist and educator, whose practice engages with issues including narrative, space, gender, and the body. Her photographs have been widely exhibited, and her published books combining her photography and writing include The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death (Monacelli/Phaidon Press, 2004) and Haunted Houses (Monacelli/Phaidon Press, 2010). Botz’s photographs have been internationally exhibited at such institutions as the Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Wurttembergischer Kunstverein, De Appel, Turner Contemporary, Smack Mellon, Opalka Gallery, Welcome Collection, Alice Austen House Museum, and Benrubi Gallery. Her Oscar Qualifying short film “Bedside Manner” (2016) won the Grand Jury Prize at DOC NYC. Her work has been written about in numerous publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Art Papers, Foam Magazine, Hyperallergic, Granta, Bookforum, Modern Painters, and Time. She has held residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture; Atlantic Center for the Arts; Akademie Schloss Solitude; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Mana Contemporary. She has lectured prolifically at cultural and academic institutions including: Columbia University, Princeton University, Harvard University, Skidmore College, University of Toronto, University of Pennsylvania, Amherst College, BRIC and Green-Wood Cemetery, Southern Illinois University, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois State University among many others. Botz is the recipient of both the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Jerome Foundation grants. Her work is in permanent collections including Brooklyn Museum and Museum of Contemporary Photography. She received her BFA from Maryland Institute, College of Art and her MFA from Bard College. Botz is on the faculty of International Center of Photography and John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY).
