“The Innermost Room,” a contemporary art exhibition of rescued photographs, original images and public documents, opens to the public with a free reception April 20, 2012, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm, at the Robert C. Williams Paper Museum on Georgia Tech campus.   

The stirring collection includes images and video from the town of Joplin Missouri, which was struck with a deadly tornado in May 2011 that ravaged 7,000 homes and took 155 lives. The faces of the middle-class, middle American community are resilient in the rescued photos. The geophysical pattern of the tornado is printed onto their surfaces at the macro level. The multi-media presentation draws a portrait of the town, tells the story of the storm and presents a vision of the future through the voices of its citizens.

Sponsored in part by the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs, the exhibition is open through June 1, 2012. The project is also an event to benefit Operation Photo Rescue.  OPR is a national organization that goes into disaster-hit cities and works with community organizations to salvage, clean and return photographs to their owners; a psychological aid for people who have lost everything.

Ruth Dusseault is visiting assistant professor and artist-in-residence in the College of Architecture at Georgia Tech. Her work is exhibited and collected internationally. Dusseault's numerous projects examine utopian expressions in the built environment and the ways they reflect the historic reality in which we live. Her work reveals the paradox that occurs when utopian visions translate into the everyday world.