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Amy Steiner and Tillamook Cheddar
Mrs. Cheddar and the Vicious Circle, 2002
Inkjet print, plexiglass 11x14"

Mrs. Cheddar and Her Vicious Circle

Documentation of the acutely paranoid, bitter and hostile artists and cronies surrounding Tillamook Cheddar. Many of the characters are from the Bergen Street Round Table, a cadre of New York canines who meet for lunch daily in Brooklyn. The beginnings of this circle of "friends" dates around the time of Mrs. Cheddar's firing from Dog Fancy, the incident that cements the friendship of drama critic and legendary wit Budweiser Benchley (who quits his job at the magazine in a protest against the "stupid" decision to fire Mrs. Cheddar). Benchley is indeed Cheddar's greatest friend, and could perhaps be the great love of her life, if the two of them weren't already married (Hastie always denied this allegation). Although others in the circle, including Robber Sherwood, Slim Jim Thurber, Ham Fish Coughfman, Poopsie Ferber, and Hacken Pee Adams, have not yet reached the celebrity stature of Mrs. Cheddar, to the outside world they are celebrities, but to those on the inside, they are "just a bunch of loudmouths showing off."