The Subterranean Gallery is dedicated to the darkest of arts and the darkest of artists -- the word and the wordsmith. This is a venue where the only canvas necessary is the imagination, and the artists' creations are works of whispers and screams, blood and shadows. There are no restrictions in theme, no all-too-familiar concentration on a single style or school. The works on display range from the disciplined to the unrestrained, from horror and crime to variations and explorations that cannot be -- and should not be -- so easily classified.

Twenty works of imagination and wonder await within, including:

• Jack Ketchum's 'Megan's Law,' a tale whose bold brushstrokes slash switchblade quick through a suburban setting.
• George Clayton Johnson's 'The Monstering Kind,' in which two boys search for the mysteries of life, death, and the supernatural.
• William Browning Spencer's 'Your Faithful Servant,' a portraiture of the clef d'or profession that is as precise in style as Earl Grey at four and as bizarre in execution as the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.
• Terry Lamsley's 'The Stunted House,' a sunny seascape where all is not so innocently picturesque as it appears.
• Tia V. Travis's 'The Kiss,' a tale of grief and revenge set to a mambo beat.