In 2017, the New Britain Museum of American Art invited artist Pablo Helguera to exhibit as part of its NEW/NOW series. Inspired by New Britain’s rich industrial history and the museum’s extensive holdings of American art and illustration,Helguera wrote and illustrated three short stories, now presented in this small book. The stories draw upon the legacy of the Shakers in Connecticut, the manufacturing legacy of New Britain (once known as “the Hardware Capitol of the World”), and the biography of one of New Britain’s most illustrious residents, American artist Sol LeWitt. These stories, which interweave humor, the supernatural, and heartfelt reflections about education and the power of art making, serve as a small tribute to the history of this New England town and Museum.About the AuthorIn a methodical way and recurring to strategies connected to the baroque fugue and ars combinatoria (combinatory art), Pablo Helguera (Mexico City, 1971) often draws improbable relationships between human histories, biographies, anecdotes and historical events, always bringing them all together in a cohesive whole and making all serve as a reflection on our current relationship with art as a society. Helguera often focuses on history, pedagogy, sociolinguistics and anthropology in formats such as lectures, museum displays, performance and written fiction. His project The School of Panamerican Unrest (2003-2011), an early example of pedagogically-fo- cused socially engaged art, consisted in a...