On June 3 Denise Prince will host an experiential art exhibition (tailored for teens and adults) where childhood splendor bumps up against certain realities of becoming an adult. Lie in one of twelve twin beds or crawl in your neighbor’s. Buy a pack of candy cigarettes. The exhibition will as likely return you to childhood as remind you of being torn away from its charms. Inspired by the storybook Madeline ("In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines."), For Esmé, With Apologies for What Lies Ahead is a series of staged displays the visitor can interact with.

Prince explores this territory to demonstrate that Fantasy organizes our experience of everyday reality and tells us who we are. With a tip of her hat to Plato's Allegory of the Cave, she contends that adults indulge best in life's pretends when they can identify them as such.