They are mages that most passers-by take for granted - or scoff at as being naive messages from simple folks.

But for a native Southerner Meryl Truett, the roadside signs, icons and images that dot the countryside are the essence of the South and she's captured more than 50 examples in her new book, "Thump Queen," ($15.95. Velvet Hammer Press, ISBN 0-9724721-0-X)

What began as a project for her MFA degree from Savannah College of Art and Design, "Thump Queen" gave Truett an outlet for a decade's worth of images - from roadside memorials to iconographic landmarks.

"I am interested in documenting and cataloguing the remnants of a lost time and lost way of life," Truett writes I her foreword. "My focus lies not with the mythical old South of privileged Southern belles and gentlemen sipping mint juleps on white-columned verandas, but with the authentic, hard-scrabble South of hand-scrawled signs stabbed into the piney woods, make shift barbecue joints with hickory smoke billowing from rickety chimneys and the Mom and Pop meat 'n' three restaurants that dot the less traveled crisscross highways.

Many of the black-and-white images were captured using a plastic Diana camera, its lens vignette creating a voyeuristic feel, as if you were peering into the scene through a cleverly disguised periscope.

And if you like these images, please stand by. Truett isn't done yet - she's exploring similar topics with her fledgling publishing company.

The artist, who already holds a master's degree in media arts from the University of South Carolina, is also a veteran photographer with a portfolio that encompasses fine art photography and work for a variety of commercial clients in the music industry. She lives in Savannah with her husband, John Meyer.

"Thump Queen," (I'm not giving up the source of the title - buy the book!) is available at Off the Wall Gallery on Broughton St., where Truett had a book signing in December. Other signings are planned in local bookshops this month.