We recently got introduced to a book that deserves everyone's attention both for its unique concept and the way this concept was realized. Pairing up artists who interpreted the stories by the inmates from Wisconsin detention facilities in their own visual language, Action and Reaction: Anatomy of the Carceral State is a book of stories and art, focusing on experience, reaction, and resistance to mass incarceration. 

Featuring works by 13 artists from across the United States, including the likes of Bianca Fields, Quinn Guarino,  Sam Fein, Carter Flachbarth, Melanie Luna, Shiloah Symone Coley, or
Troy Lamarr Chew among others, the book includes all new works directly inspired and paired with 13 different prisoners’ real life stories.

 "Each letter, collected by our incarcerated colleague, highlights a specific aspect of life incarcerated. When compiled together, they tell a larger story of the human rights violations and devastations perpetrated by the carceral system. Each artist created a reactionary piece to the letter they were paired with. The letters and their response pieces are showcased together in this book, providing the reader with a visual and visceral guide to these evocative personal stories. The book, organized by Hasbrook Galleries, aims to highlight individual experience with mass incarceration and how it relates to the larger prison population. Using art as a form of reaction and resistance, we hope to generate outside support for our incarcerated colleagues, aid in amplifying their voices, and shine a light on the atrocities individuals face in the United States of America’s ‘justice’ system."