Many of Lorna Simpson’s early works, which combine photographic image and text, complicate and subvert viewer’s expectations. 15 Mouths features diverse, closely cropped images of mouths, accompanied by texts ranging from tactile adjectives such as “sumptuous” and “meaty” to poetic descriptions such as “a voice that darkened with age.” The work explores how assumptions about a person’s character can be based on physical attributes and differences, and challenges the human instinct to categorize people.