Zine has lessons about public art from recounting history of Somerville’s guerrilla sculpture garden

Claire Ogden A page from “The Free Range Sculpture Garden” a zine by Tim Devin and Alex Kittle.

Lots of people make art from found objects. Few have the guts to do it in public, let alone transform an entire area into an unauthorized local landmark.

The Free Range Sculpture Garden, a zine by Tim Devin and Alex Kittle explores the history of the artists behind installations on the Davis Square section of the Somerville Community Path: metonyms including Greg, Smitty, Martha, Kyoko, Nick and a host of other characters who have added to and maintained the sculpture garden since 2007.

Devin writes lovingly, while Kittle’s distinctive drawings are peppered throughout, and there’s a deep appreciation for local creativity in every page. Several paragraphs are dedicated to a kid-friendly train table, for instance, that Smitty recently refurbished to keep safe for use. A touching page highlights the garden’s memorials, including a three-panel sculpture by Brian Morrison for his friend Tiffany Sedaris, a pastry chef and artist who died in 2013. Particularly noteworthy is a bit about the Ghost Bike, a skeleton riding a fully functional bicycle that hangs from a tree. The group has “no idea who put that there,” Nick admits. 

That part is key to this story: The group may have started the installations but it’s a public art project. They encourage others to be part of the fun, and Devin and Kittle focus on the collective volunteer work that continues to make the garden possible over an individual artist’s contribution – such as Hayward Zwerling’s giant giraffe sculptures, which got some Globe coverage in 2024. 

As the City of Boston prepares for its flashy inaugural public art festival, organizers of institutionally backed public art initiatives would be wise to take note of the scrappy yet hugely popular efforts of Smitty and his collaborators. “Placemaking works best when it’s an organic grassroots expression of a community,” Devin writes in the zine’s final pages. “That’s not something you can do top-down.”

The zine is $12 at Printed Matter, Half Letter Press Antiquated Future and other online shops. Devin also donated a copy to the Somerville Public Library, and it will be on view in its zine collection in the coming months.

Share your own 150-word appreciation for a piece of visual art or art happening with photo to [email protected] with the subject line “Behold.”