Love Is Strong As Death

Solo show
Works on paper and public programming
Oct 2 - Nov 14, 2026

Love Is Strong As Death invokes the wide-spanning political and social implications of love’s power for radical personal transformation through works on paper, a participatory installation, a lending library and conversation-based public events. The love that this exhibition invokes is the all-accomplishing love that incinerates egos and opens hearts, a necessary process for continued life. Not love as in flowers and kisses – love as in, I would die for you. This is a solo show at Stove Works in Chattanooga, TN, October 2 - November 14, 2026.

The works on paper use an original gunpowder-based ink to render intaglio prints of quotations on love’s radical potential, drawing from bell hooks, James Baldwin, Sappho, and others. This explosive ink makes literal a militant love that burns through fear, hierarchy, and enclosure. These prints are framed by arched shaped plates that, together, imitate liturgical architecture, or grave marker epitaphs.

Charcoal-gray gunpowder ink is complimented by a separate, rust-colored ink made of melted-down guns, innovated by artist Thomas Little. Little’s process alchemizes weapons into creative substance, which I used to print portraits of four individuals - martyrs - whose love led them out of this world in flames.

The exhibition deepens with abstract watercolor drawings made from internal observations of my transformations in, through and with love. Sometimes violent, often painful, and ultimately freeing, these images draw on surreal tradition from the likes of Hilma af Klint and Georgia O’Keefe.

The exhibition features several elements of public engagement, most prominently, a participatory love letter altar to which visitors are invited to contribute directly using provided materials. An open call for love letters (below) preceded the show, with over 60 love letters contributed for anonymous feature on the altar.

A lending library in the gallery gathers the books behind the exhibited texts for visitors to peruse during their visit in a comfortable seating arrangement.

The exhibition opened on October 2 at Stove Works with a public salon conversation exploring love’s capacity to disrupt hierarchy and nourish growth.

In a closing event on November 14, all of the love letters from the love letter altar will be read aloud and burned in a public vigil event.

Open Call for Love Letters

I am looking for love letters to anyone or anything for a love letter altar as part of my solo show Love is Strong As Death, October 2nd - November 14th, 2026, at Stove Works Chattanooga.

Send yours to iwoulddieforyou@proton.me,

or text or leave a voice message: 423.451.6568.

Letters will be shown with name and address redacted.

They will be read aloud, played or screened and then burned in a public vigil event for the closing of the show on November 14, 2026.

more about the show.

More about Adrian Wood.

FAQ

What should I send?

You can write in prose, poetry, verse, text message, morse code, or any living or dead language. You can send pictures, drawings, voice memos, songs, and ephemera.

Where do I send it?

Mail to:
Adrian Wood c/o Stove Works
1250 E 13th St.
Chattanooga, TN 37408

or send an email to iwoulddieforyou@proton.me

or text or leave a voice message: 423.451.6568

Are these love letters to you, Adrian?

No.
(:

Are curse words allowed in submissions?

Write whatever you want wherever you want on your own work.

How long should letters /artwork be? How many works per person?

1-100 pages per person.

When you receive songs ,would their be played on live radio and then maybe deleted?

There's a chance songs will be played on the radio. I will delete them at the end of the show.

more about the show.

More about Adrian Wood.