Katie Mulligan — No Man’s Land: Reimagining the Myth of Cicero Swamp

No Man’s Land: Reimagining the Myth of Cicero Swamp offers a look into Cicero Swamp Wildlife Management Area, often known to locals as Rattlesnake Gulch. Cicero Swamp is a complex network of ecosystems that stretches across nearly 5,000 acres. The swamp was deemed a ‘wasteland’ throughout its early history, and local perception and myth evolved into attempts to drain and alter the swamp. Cicero Swamp is a sample of a larger story; throughout the history of the United States, wetlands were perceived by settlers as mysterious, dangerous, and evil. This perception has led to the draining and destruction of 50% of the nation’s wetlands in the present day. No Man’s Land glimpses into a wetland ecosystem through fibers and illustration, and attempts to combat bias and misconception of wetlands, particularly swamps; before it is too late. Katie Mulligan is an illustrator who grew up ten miles from Cicero Swamp. As a child, she only knew the area from the perspective of the plane that flew over and dumped chemicals on the swamp to target mosquitoes. As an illustrator, she has come to know the swamp as an incredibly biodiverse, rare complex of ecosystems. Mulligan is working to understand how bias and misconceptions have targeted swamps and other wetlands through a research process that incorporated many approaches, including a feminist and qualitative lens.