HNOC hosts expansive Bunny Matthews exhibition

The big picture: The Historic New Orleans Collection hosts the exhibition, which is open now through May 9.

• "Bunny Matthews: His Life, Art, and Obsessions" was produced alongside a new book by Alison Fensterstock and Michael Tisserand with the same title.
• Pro tip: Visiting the museum is free.

Catch up quick: Matthews worked as a writer and artist in New Orleans, first working for alternative publications like "Figaro" in the 1970s.

• By 1982, he'd joined The Times-Picayune where he invented the Vic and Nat'ly characters.
• The resulting cartoons put the two Yats on New Orleans' front row, where they reacted to, lampooned and grumbled over daily life in one of the world's weirdest cities.
• Matthews died in 2021, but he left behind a treasure trove of records, memorabilia and artwork.

Zoom in: HNOC curatorial cataloguer Emily Perkins went through all of it, and the book and the exhibition were produced in collaboration with Matthews' family.

• Matthews' "obsessions jumped out," says Perkins. While the book goes into additional categories, Perkins "pulled what I thought were the biggest obsessions: New Orleans' authenticity, the accent, Mardi Gras, holidays, things like that."
• The result is an exhibition with the usual examples of Matthews' work throughout his life — but also a life-size replica of Vic and Nat'ly's bar, an interactive board where you can draw your own cartoons and recordings of Yat-accented people speaking.

The intrigue: "Bunny didn't just celebrate New Orleans' culture. He loved to critique it as well," Perkins says. "He loved hating on Jazz Fest from the perspective of 'who is this for?' And that's a conversation we're still having. "

• "And Vic and Nat'ly could be critical, kind of griping. … They were his mouthpiece."