There’s a new exhibit on view in the Independent Film and Photography (IFP) Minnesota gallery: “Road Work,” a themed photo show filled with images taken on the road. Of these, “Curator’s Journal” by Vance Gellert, documents the artists and self-taught creatives met on his travels through Cuba and Russia. Gellert’s portraits are evocative and worth a visit, certainly, but it’s the second of the portfolios on exhibit, “Roadside Anthropology” by Chuck Avery, that I want to mention here.

Avery’s photographs are an oddball collection of beautifully shot images that chronicle an alternate American history — a national hagiography, written piecemeal and related through roadside didactics and in regional museum dioramas, through congratulatory plaques on monuments to industry and technology, in small-town museums honoring local celebrities, and via interactive, educational history centers.

Avery’s images offer a portrait of national self-esteem, the song we sing of ourselves: that we are an exceptional country of doers and adventurers; of the twin, unmitigated goods of commerce and innovation; of the power and unfettered potential of individual success and achievement. Among his subjects are monuments to the oil business and the Old West or to the transportation and aviation industries; museum displays for celebrity folk heroes like Roy Rogers or the astronauts of the moon landing; much redacted histories of “native” life or cowboy culture.

Seen through his lens, the exaggerations and elisions inherent in our shared national memory, and the sheer weirdness of some of our civic mythologies, is made plain. In an interview published on his website, Avery says, “My images are not overtly political, but are intended to give pause and thought to cultural and social issues. … How do we perceive ourselves, and how do we form this self-image? Is this self-perception an accurate representation, or is it a polished idealization?”

It’s a fascinating selection of work.

“Road Work,” a photography show featuring “Curator’s Journal” by Gellert and “Roadside Anthropology” by Avery, is on view through March 21 at IFP Minnesota Center for Media Arts gallery, 2446 University Ave. W. Ste. #100, St. Paul, Minn. Admission is free and open to the public. Find gallery hours and more information on the website: http://ifpmn.org/