This replica of Byrd’s sketchbook is both an introduction to an under-appreciated American artist and a sensitive postwar portrait of those who served in World War II.

Though he rarely exhibited his art during his lifetime, American painter David Byrd (1926-2013) developed a sophisticated artistic practice alongside his career as a psychiatric ward orderly. A World War II veteran himself, Byrd was deeply affected by the nearly 30 years he spent working at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in upstate New York.