Curated by Olivia Wertz (PhD, English, 2025, WVU)
Downtown Library 6th Floor Reading Room
Fall 2025 - Spring 2026
WVU PhD graduate in English, Olivia Wertz, visually explores key themes from two chapters of her dissertation on climate fiction. The exhibition focuses on Severance by Ling Ma and Octavia Butler’s Parable novels, examining the intersections of capitalism, climate change, and bodily vulnerability.
Drawing from Amitav Ghosh’s assertion in The Great Derangement that “the climate crisis is also a crisis of culture, and thus of the imagination,” Wertz seeks to address this crisis through visual representation. The exhibit features collages that depict significant scenes from Ma and Butler’s works, interwoven with images from real-world climate-related news. By juxtaposing fiction with reality, Wertz challenges the notion that fiction implies falsehood, instead highlighting how climate change is deeply rooted in the intersecting oppressions of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. Through this work, Wertz aims to prompt viewers to reflect on the interconnectedness of social, political, and environmental issues.