In her solo exhibition at the Museum of the Southwest, Lauren Ruiz explores themes and variations concerning interiority: subterranean interiors of the earth (oil, water, human and animal remains); interiors of religious systems (ritual, power, tradition); and interiors of the human body (mutation, decay, birth, violation). She investigates commonalities between these internal systems, their shared duration over time, and the external forces which act upon them – what is buried and kept, and what is mined, extracted, or taken. Sheol is a site-responsive installation using elements of sculpture and sound to investigate what happens when the interior is made visible, when stillness is interrupted by force, and when the sacred is disturbed. Invoking the Midland Discovery, Sheol investigates how religious and economic influence impacts female bodies and subterranean spaces in Midland and beyond, shaping the sinews of American ideologies.