Ties that bind, our physical bodies and psychological and social violence occupy Dolores Wilber’s unsentimental investigations. Following a tradition of admiration for natural form, she is drawn to examining the system of nature that undeniably sustains us against the instability of human relationships. What makes us feel safe, how we survive, and how to say what we mean and mean what we say
are enduring topics for her. Wilber grapples with the cultural exhaustion that
the broken promises of empty language and meaningless images create in our lives. Her work addresses questions of vulnerability, the ability to abide despite travails suffered, issues of crime and punishment, and a loss of place in the world.
The form depends on the peculiarity of the theme and site where presented.
An emphasis on the body as the mediator between the self and everything else
is the consistent anchor.

Consciously emotional, the presentation is formal and baroque, with an effort to disassemble and subvert our highly organized ability to decode, pigeonhole, and digest what we experience. She shifts between still and moving images, searching for ways to extend the investigations into multiple forms that are disturbing, droll, entertaining and at times confrontational.

Her work moves between solo and collaborative projects, consistently searching
for ways to extend the investigations into multi-dimensional formats in a variety
of media.

Wilber has exhibited at the Chicago Cultural Center, The Hyde Park Arts Center, the Cleveland Performance Art Festival, The Royal College of Art in London, the Von Krahli Theatre (Tallin), Rakvere Museum, Estonia, and had performances on the steps of the Museum of Contemporary Art. Her video short, Chests, was premiered at the Ann Arbor Film Festival in 2005. Writing and photography was seen in Fold: the Reader (NC), and this issue of Fold received a Print Regional Annual Award for 2005. Recent work includes a collaborative project on public space and memory with Heitor Alvelos, School of Fine Arts, General Board, Gomes Teixeira Foundation University of Porto, Portugal, She has received awards from numerous sources including the Illinois Art Council, the United States Embassy, the Richard H. Dreihaus Foundation, and the Peabody Award as a producer for
the public radio program, This American Life, hosted by Ira Glass.