Firebird

Kythe Heller's Firebird sequence probes the capacity of the human spirit to endure under extreme conditions. Here, fire is both a destructive and a unifying force, altering people and landscapes. Runaways, the sick and the poor, a forest and a smoldering mattress - these stunning images burn themselves into the reader's imagination. The female body becomes the site of trauma and myth, a place where "everything is burning, has been and is always burning." Fiercely intelligent and relentlessly visceral, Firebird renders the world with singular clarity: "there were so many things that would look-nice-if they were seen through flames."