At Elephant Butte: When the River Runs Dry

By Joyce Cutler-Shaw San Diego, California: Joyce Cutler-Shaw, 2009. Edition of 25.

7.25 x 4.5"; extends to 10". Slide book.

A panoramic view of a rock bed section of the Rio Grande presented as a slide book. When opened the viewer sees a meandering river with tree limbs arching over it.

Joyce Cutler-Shaw, exhibition catalog Of Water and the River Meditations on the Rio Grande: "After generations of river control, after the cottonwoods have aged and disappeared, after marshes and wetlands have been drained for conversion to farmland, after mining wastes have degraded and polluted the waters, many species have been endangered, threatened or lost, their habitat gone: animals and birds such as the Phantom shiner, the Piping plover, the Interior least tern, the Spotted bat, and native plant life as the Great Plains spirathes, Catchfly gentian, and Pecos sunflower. ...

"Beyond summary are the continuous and continuing complex of measures and treaties, by which the Rio Grande, once braided and meandering, has been channeled and controlled. With recurring years of drought it is also running dry."
$200