Paa Joe, whose real name is Joseph Tetteh Ashong, is known for making coffins. But not just any coffins. The Ghanaian artist is famous for his fantasy coffins, carved to resemble lions, turtles, rhinos, fish—creations that are now in the collections of major museums. The exhibition “Gates of No Return” presents a series that was commissioned in 2004 and 2005, and consists of seven large-scale architectural models of Gold Coast castles and forts, the long-ago way stations through which Africans were sold into slavery and taken away in ships. These elaborate wood structures are themselves a kind of coffin. —L.J.

Paa Joe: Gates of No Return
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High Museum of Art / Atlanta / Art
High Museum of Art / Atlanta / Art
Paa Joe, “[Fort] Gross - Friedrichsburg – Princetown. 1683 Brandenburg, 1717 - 24 Ahanta, 1724 Neths, 1872 Britain,” 2004 – 2005 and 2017. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo © Paa Joe, courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
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