In "Rather Bright Complexion," 2022, Myers crafts a searing sculptural portrait of Nat Turner’s head. The work is cast from palm oil soap, a reference to the grisly treatment of Turner’s remains. This severed head is seated on a silver platter, a composition that draws upon Caravaggio’s multiple depictions of Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, a prophetic Christian Saint who lived and died, as Turner did, preaching the word of God.

When Nat Turner was convicted of spearheading a revolt of enslaved people, he was sentenced to death by lynching. Afterward, his corpse was brutally desecrated. According to John W. Cromwell in a 1920 article in The Journal of Negro History, “Turner was skinned to supply such souvenirs as purses, his flesh made into grease soap, and his bones divided as trophies to be handed down as heirlooms.” His head was separated from his body and circulated as a curio. It was reported to have spent much of the 20th century at the College of Wooster in Ohio. His headless remains were likely buried in an unmarked grave.