Art in Wisconsin—Myth and Imagination: Finding the Dark Soul of a State in Wisconsin Death Trip

This story is part of the Art in Wisconsin guide featured in our July/August 2025 issue.

If you’ve cruised the Driftless Area of southwest Wisconsin from Richland Center, to Viroqua, through Mineral Point, and finally north to Jackson County, you’ve sensed the spirits conjured in Michael Lesy’s legendary 1973 book, “Wisconsin Death Trip.” Lesy’s text is a nonfiction assortment of impressions of the forlorn community around Black River Falls, Wisconsin around the turn of the last century. Images and accounts of death, disease and hardship are interspersed with grotesquery and idiosyncrasy.

Imagine “Hollywood Babylon,” but for a small town on the frontier...

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Kia Notes: Interesting read, please note BRF has a lot of great things to offer today.