Honor Song is published to coincide with the first major retrospective exhibition of the artist Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, known internationally for his conceptual artwork—colorful text-based prints, drawings, paintings, sculptures, and public interventions—that addresses Indigenous rights, sovereignty, and relationships to place.
Organized with the artist, the book spans more than four decades of his making, tracing Heap of Birds’ trajectory from the 1970s to the present through prints, drawings, abstract paintings, blown-glass vessels, and public sculptures. The publication includes texts by exhibition co-curators Pablo N. Barrera (Wixáritari) and AnnaVittoria Pickett; David Levi Strauss; Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation/ Hotvlkvlke Mvskokvlke, Nuyakv); Kiona Millirons; and Shanna Ketchum-Heap of Birds )Navajo Nation).
Heap of Birds's work is housed in numerous public collections worldwide, including Art Basel U.S. Corp. (NY), the Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Art Gallery (NY), FORGE Project Collection (NY, Unceded lands of the Moh-He-Con-Nuck), Museum of Modern Art (NY), Walker Art Center (MN), and Whitney Museum of American Art (NY).