How to portray human presence without depicting bodily forms? James English Leary, Milena Muzquiz, Hilary Pecis, Ryan Steadman, and Johannes VanDerBeek each explore this question in exciting new ways. Leary creates wooden silhouettes in which more than one thing is happening; Pecis paints gardens, libraries, and interiors from photographs; and Steadman concocts abstractions of real books in mottled pigment. If human life is a puzzle, these are the pieces. —E.C.