ESCAPE FROM THE TERRIBLE DOGFISH by artist Lacey Bryant

Paper mache, polymer clay, paint, 17” x 14” x 8”

The Terrible Dogfish is a fearsome sea creature the size of a five story building, sporting three rows of teeth in a mouth that can easily accommodate a train. Dogfish swallows Pinocchio, who had recently transformed from a donkey to his puppet form, when he enters the sea to escape from his former handler.

The Fairy with Turquoise Hair, in the form of a mountain goat, warns Pinocchio of the Dogfish too late, and the puppet is swallowed whole, along with a tuna whom Pinocchio befriends. Pinocchio discovers his father, who reveals that he has been trapped within the Dogfish for two years, surviving on ship supplies swallowed by the creature.

When the Dogfish is revealed to suffer from asthma, a condition that forces it to sleep with its head raised from the water, Pinocchio carries Geppetto on his back and swims out of the Dogfish's mouth. When Pinocchio's strength begins to fail, the tuna helps them reach the shore.