Known for her “shack” sculptures and land installations across her native Georgia, Buchanan embraces Southern vernacular architecture as emblematic of Black American history

Published with Andrew Edlin Gallery.

At the heart of Beverly Buchanan’s (born 1940) work is a belief in transformation. Her art speaks to cycles of collapse and rebirth–of buildings, of landscapes, of lives. Ruination and Regeneration examines Buchanan’s major bodies of work, including her abstract paintings of 1970s New York, her cast-concrete “frustula,” her site-specific installations such as Marsh Ruins and her acclaimed “shack” sculptures–tributes to the handmade homes of Black tenant farmers in the rural South. Featuring essays, interviews, poems, archival materials and Buchanan’s own writings, this volume offers a rich and multifaceted reflection of her deeply personal and politically charged oeuvre. Ruination and Regeneration not only honors Buchanan’s legacy but also reframes how we see memory, place and the power of making art from what remains.

Alice Walker is a Pulitzer Prizewinning author, poet and activist.
Leigh Arnold is curator at the Nasher Sculpture Center.
Jane Bridges was Buchanans life partner.
Andy Campbell is an associate professor at USC’s Roski School of Art and Design.
Andrew Edlin is the owner of Andrew Edlin Gallery and founder of the Outsider Art Fair.
Aurlie Bernard Wortsman is the director of Andrew Edlin Gallery.
Amelia Groom is currently a visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Randy Kennedy was for 25 years an Arts staff writer at The New York Times.
Jana La Brasca is the 202527 critic-in-residence at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
Jene-Daria Strand is the assistant curator at Public Art Fund.
Molly Superfine is a research associate at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

• Publisher: Delmonico Books
• Publish Date: September 29, 2026
• Pages: 296
• Language: English
• Type: Hardcover
• EAN/UPC: 9781636812281
• Dimensions: 9.5 X 10.1 X 1.1 inches | 3.5 pounds
• BISAC: Art / Individual Artists / Monographs
  Art / Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions
  Art / Sculpture & Installation