Droo-cynthia-visits-the-spankers-drawings-gallery-153-23 -

I bought a bar of lavender soap shaped like a handprint. The Tocker wrapped it in tissue and whispered, "Use it before a difficult conversation."

The Uncomfortable Gaze: Droo-Cynthia Visits the Spankers’ Drawings Gallery (153–23) Droo-cynthia-visits-the-spankers-drawings-gallery-153-23

As I stepped back into the ordinary street, the sting on my thigh faded entirely. But I swear I felt a faint pressure on my shoulder blade—as if someone, somewhere, was sharpening a pencil and deciding where to begin. I bought a bar of lavender soap shaped like a handprint

"The Scribe erased them," she said. "That’s the deal. The drawings keep the sting. My skin forgets." She let the shift fall. "Which do you think is crueler?" "The Scribe erased them," she said

This is where the gallery becomes uncomfortable—deliberately so. Drawing 153–23–09, "Over the Armchair of Revision" , shows Droo-Cynthia draped across a Victorian bergère. Her face is turned toward the viewer. She is not weeping. She is counting. Her lips form the number fourteen .

The largest work in the show, "The Gallery Watches the Gallery" (153–23–17), is a panoramic mural done in sanguine and sepia. It depicts this very gallery. In the mural, a crowd of faceless patrons stands before a drawing of Droo-Cynthia. But inside that drawing, a smaller Droo-Cynthia stands before a mirror. And inside the mirror, a tiny Tocker points at the viewer.

I approached. "Does it hurt," I asked, "to be drawn like this?"