"John Van Wmson"

Self-empowerment can be unintentionally amusing; just ask the roommates who found your copy of Buns of Steel. “John Van Wmson,” curated by Dogmatic’s Michael S. Thomas at the Butcher Shop—a space that is far from the white-box galleries on Washington and Peoria in distance and spirit—verges a little too close to Ya-Ya territory, but it provides a much-needed reminder that women have sources of strength other than shoe sales or pints of mint chocolate chip.

The show features an eclectic group of work by Lisa Williamson, drawings in graphite by Kristen VanDeventer, and watercolors and oil paintings by UIC alum Stacie Johnson.

With the exception of one fantastic drawing, Another Mountain, VanDeventer’s pieces tend to be overshadowed by the rest of the exhibition, which explores domesticity and spirituality from a young urbanite’s perspective. In Johnson’s cozy, jewel-bright series “Four Corners of My Apartment,” home is a haven where even the dishwashing liquid glows.

Williamson’s Purification Videos also depict home as a sanctuary: one where the artist can find inner peace and understanding by meditating, or perhaps by watering her plants and then drinking from the watering can.

The symbolism may be heavy-handed, but Williamson does have a sense of humor, describing the segment in which she highlights passages from Our Bodies, Ourselves, while listening to Ivor Cutler’s “Women of the World” as a “campy call to arms.” As Cutler says, “Women of the world, take over!” You can grow more confident and self-reliant without even leaving the house.—Lauren Weinberg