The love letter might not seem like such a private order of business once people visit the art exhibit He’s So Sweet, F***ing A**hole on display at the Vergette Gallery in the Allyn Building.

The exhibit features hundreds of mostly hand-written real love letters, which are pasted all over the walls and strewn about the floor, addressed to artist David Lohman, a senior in art and design.

The letters are from a variety of Lohman’s former girlfriends from seventh grade year to his senior year in high school. The girls express the love they had for Lohman in some of the letters, while a few others are actually notes Lohman wrote to other girls asking them out or expressing his feelings toward them.

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There is also an audio tape that has a collection of recordings the girls made of them singing, reciting poetry and addressing such pressing topics as marriage.

As the primary focus of the exhibit, the letters have caused controversy with some students who feel the exhibit is exploiting the artist’s former girlfriends.

Obviously at the time when he had these relationships, [Lohman] felt similar to what these girls felt for him, said Angie Southworth, a sophomore in speech communication from Belleville. And now it seems like he’s making a mockery of it. It’s kind of condescending toward not necessarily just girls but anyone who had any feelings like that.

These girls probably thought it would be just between him and the paper, and now he’s displaying it for everyone to see. It’s like he’s saying Look what all these girls felt for me. Ha-ha. Now it’s just a piece of art for me.’

Though the exhibit can seem like a paradigm of narcissism to some, the artist said a few of the girls in the letters know about the exhibit and are not angry with it.

He also said it follows the basic groundwork of what art is and moves through areas not normally covered by other artists.

Of course it’s self indulgent. What art isn’t? Lohman said. I believe it’s very honest and pure. Most shows that are around are afraid to delve into this territory.

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I think it’s a good thing for a person to take stock in their past and analyze what they’ve done wrong and what they’ve done right. This wasn’t meant to be a malicious show.

School of Art and Design professor Joel Feldman agrees that Lohman’s use of himself and his own experiences is a step forward as far as the contemporary art world is concerned.

In contemporary art, artists sometimes choose to use themselves in a sense of their own bodies or experiences and take a highly autobiographical approach by using personal experience as a metaphor for society at large or a segment of society at large, he said.

In the art world, there is a tremendous precedent for what [Lohman] has done. It shows he’s aware of different contemporary art strategies.

Feldman added that he had seen strong work by Lohman in the past that proved he was not doing this exhibit simply because he did not have the ability to create other types of art.

The overall consensus of some of the viewers stepping into the gallery Wednesday afternoon was one of distaste similar to Southworth’s.

But along with the biting criticism, Lohman is receiving his fair share of praise. Located in the center of the exhibit is a journal he used to document the day-to-day progressions of various relationships. Toward the end of the notebook is a section reserved for comments from gallery visitors.

Though many of the visitors wrote about his lack of tasteful judgment and cursed the exploitation of his former girlfriends, others applauded the way he captured a certain time period that everyone goes through as they grow up which is what Lohman said the exhibit is about.

It’s a celebration of young love. That high school feeling that you get with your first crush and your first heartbreak, he said. And in a lot of ways it acts as a memorial for that nostalgic feeling. It’s a chapter in my life that has come and gone and it’s something that I can show.

It’s getting rid of that baggage and moving on. If you can’t exploit love, what else is there to exploit?

Southworth said the exhibit shows what Lohman was like during the time period these letters were written, and that she would be angry if she were ever in the position the artist’s former girlfriends are in now.

He’s So Sweet, F***ing A**hole will run through Friday in the Vergette Gallery.