Process 

I’ve No More Need for My Bones, Nor for the Stone You Put Over Them          

1986
Assemblage with human hand bones, electric light
15 x 14 x 14 Inches
Light shines up through bones and meter registers when a button is pushed
Private collection. This piece is for sale however through stevebrudniak.com

Click to purchase or inquire about this artwork 

The monument stone was given to me by the caretaker of a cemetery in Houston in the mid eighties. I was informed that the stone was moved from a family plot that was relocated for a mortuary or something. He showed me a pile of stones that had been moved and said I could have anything that had no dates. I would imagine its some 100 or so years old. I used a grave stone carvers services to help me cut the holes in the stone. He loaned me his facilities and I worked there for a couple days. He later informed me that his wife was upset after having seen the stone, as her family name was Butera and they had been buried in the same cemetery! The bones were given to me by a friend who had confiscated parts of an articulated demonstration skeleton from some institution or other.