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In the early nineties, Renee French was living in Philadelphia and drawing pictures of families in homes ruled by unsavory secrets. The creepiness of these drawings lies in their details—the belly folds of an obese mother, a set of tacky ceramic dishes, a door that only partially conceals a room in which something untoward is occurring. This work appeared in small galleries around town, but it was rarely seen by more than thirty people. The trajectory of French’s career changed when she saw the work of cartoonists Chester Brown and Charles Burns, and discerned an alternative to mounting small shows in small rooms to small notice. Using her previous oeuvre of narrative drawings as a springboard, she began making art that combined text and images to tell a story that could be seen and read anywhere.