Ten days ago, Michelle Obama gave an impassioned speech that ventured into much-contested but rarely spoken-of territory in politics: women's bodies. Not only women's rights, but the physical realities of uncertainty and all-too-common ailments. "Most of us women, we suck up our pain and deal with it alone," the former first lady said. "We don't share our experiences with anyone, not with our partners, our friends or even our doctors. Look, a woman's body is complicated business, y'all." With "Bound in Abstractions" at Hexum Gallery in Montpelier, Burlington artist Elizabeth Powell shares a suite of works best described the same way — they are indeed complicated business. Without being coy, explicit or even figurative, they evoke complex and contradictory thoughts about female bodies: how they work, how they're displayed and how they are supported, figuratively and literally. Aptly for her subject, Powell's medium is easily misperceived. According to Hexum gallerist John Zaso, a number of visitors (this one included) are surprised when they realize these aren't digital images or prints — they're paintings. The works are small, ranging from 7 by 5 to 16 by 12 inches, and all are gouache on paper. Gouache is very matte, fast-drying, thin but opaque paint, and Powell uses it adeptly; her colors are smooth, velvety and consistent. A viewer can detect the artist's hand in the delicate edge of a line but only close-up, in person. Part of the reason these look digital is Powell's technique of creating dimension with a stepped gradient of evenly shaded lines; instead of a shadow, four or five outlines around a shape — at most an eighth of an inch thick — read from a distance as a curve. Rules, restrictions and obsessive attention to neatness are traditionally the purview of printmakers, rather than painters; Powell earned her master's in that medium before the pandemic forced her to shift her practice to something she could do at home. She begins her paintings as full graphite drawings, shading included, before applying gouache. What comes through most in these works, in technique and imagery, is that concept of restriction. The paintings are symmetrical and pattern-based, with intertwining netlike designs, lacing and pearls, in combination with more tumorous, organic forms. Each image is a balance of elements pressing forward and being held back. Powell began developing this visual lexicon when she was immobilized by endometriosis, an incredibly…