Beverly Buchanan gently imposes the architecture of the shack on our consciousness. Her art is not meant as a protest, but as a tribute to humane imagination, improvisation and the instincts of survival. Buchanan's shacks, whether oil pastel drawings, three-dimensional sculpture (which in technique and appearance approximate the shacks themselves), or photographs of the shack and shack communities, document the shack architecture while her legends record the stories of its builders.
Buchanan assures some degree of survival for both the shack and its proud inhabitants. By including a cast of characters in her accompanying legends, some real others fictional, Buchanan creates her own shack community with its various voices. While some decry the poverty of the shack communities, Buchanan insists through these works, on recognizing the power of the shack and the vitality of the people who live in them.