Gunsmoke and Mirrors

by Curt Lund

variable • Altered books, found media $NFS

These Zane Grey westerns from the 1940s and '50s present a romanticized image of life in the American Wild West. My alterations create space for the other side of the story on topics including the treatment of Native Americans, the eradication of the American Bison, gender roles in the new West, and the pop culture legacies of The Cowboy, from the Marlboro Man to the Village People.