"FIND the real Sister Electa!"
Sonia Landy Sheridan, American, 1925 - 2021
late 1960s
Copy art; Xerox photocopy
positive
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of the artist
MIS.2004.84.682
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Digital and New Media
Research Area
Digital and New Media
On view
Inscriptions
Signed and inscribed, in graphite, lower left: Sonia Sheridan "FIND the real Sister Electa!"
Label
The title of this work points to the viewer’s goal: to find the real nun hidden within. But look closely at each photo strip. A young person throws on sunglasses while another flashes the camera. Sheridan, pictured in the top left, poses alongside her students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, comically dressed up as a nun. Why do we like to play pretend, this work asks, especially in roles that feel taboo?
You can imagine Sheridan and her students coming up with campy expressions and reveling in the joy of rule-breaking. These twenty-four photo strips are put together to produce a “Where’s Waldo?” riddle of impossibility. As the viewer continues to pore over each strip, expectations for “Sister Electa’s” appearance take flight.
From the 2026 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 128, You Just Got to Laugh, curated by Sara N. Shelton ‘26, Class of 1954 Intern
Exhibition History
A Space for Dialogue 128, You Just Got to Laugh, Sara N. Shelton ‘26, Class of 1954 Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 10 - March 1, 2026.
Provenance
The artist, Hanover, New Hampshire; given to present collection, 2004.
Catalogue Raisonne
Sonia Landy Sheridan - Diane Kirkpatrick Hood Inventory List #310: Photobooth photocopy positive, "Find the Real Nun, Sister Electa" (3rd from upper left), black and white, 16" x 19", late 1960s
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