Midwest couple join forces to create ‘The History of Orthodontics Through Time and Space,’ a quirky children’s book about orthodontics

Inspiration can strike in the strangest places.

In fact, long time Midwestern artists Craig Campbell and Priscilla Steele concocted their latest project while in the waiting room of their family orthodontist.

“The History of Orthodontics Through Time and Space,” a quirky picture book for children and adults, is a delightfully absurd narrative which follows Balthazar, a scientist, and his faithful dog, Buddy, as they set out on a joyful mission to fix various characters’ mouths — and the world.

Campbell, who was a writer and host of “Liars Holographic Radio Theatre” for years, wrote the narrative.

“It was, from the very beginning, quite a romp,” Steele explained in a recent interview.

Campbell dreamed up a wide variety of characters who would be having their teeth straightened: “Everyone from George Washington to the Sphinx to … a pug, the sun, the moon, an astronaut, all these people and historic sites are getting their teeth straightened.”

“The writing is in the voice of Craig,” Steele said. “The sense of humor is a through line that publicly would be recognizable to people who knew Liar’s Theatre. But to me, it’s just an ongoing, very consistent trait that Craig manifests all the time.”

And Steele, a working artist, illustrated his ideas in a wild, exaggerated form — a noted departure from her usual style, as she primarily focuses on printmaking and figure drawing.

“There isn’t a figure in place that isn’t exaggerated. Or brightly colored,” she said, laughing.

And while Steele was initially “a little bit leery” of the project, she ended up enjoying the process immensely.

“Craig is a lot of fun to work with and he takes on ideas with a sort of irrepressible enthusiasm that I have found for 48 years that I cannot resist.”

“Craig’s purpose is always to make people laugh and have fun in the process. And there definitely was a process underlying this. So if you laughed through (reading the book), Craig accomplished his goal. And that’s very gratifying,” she said.

But wait, there’s more!

In addition to the main story, “The History of Orthodontics Through Time and Space” also includes an opening section filled with positive book reviews from unexpected sources, such as The United Coalition for Over-Coming the Under-Bite (“this beautiful book will change the way you look at your teeth!”)

The final pages provide a “behind the scenes” look at how Campbell and Steele made their creation.

“The bonus section is always interesting to me: to see that there’s actual work that goes on into making these things. It wasn’t just a hilarious romp in our kitchen as we were dreaming up something — we then went to work!”

Here readers can see the book’s narrative presented in a different way — as a large-scale work of art.

The final section shows how Campbell brought together 20 of Steele’s illustrations and mounted them in an intricate, handcrafted Walnut frame, turning the narrative into a visual puzzle.

The piece was proudly displayed — where else? — in the waiting room of their longtime family orthodontist, Dr. William Olin.