“Last Words” runs through Dec. 15.

Your last words. What will they be?

“Last Words,” the new free exhibit in the Sacramento State Library Gallery, is by Julia Couzens and examines the final words of people – some famous, some not, all anonymous.

Text driven, the installation is a “memorial, a memory of and an ode to the final words we say,” says Couzens.

The final spoken thoughts run a wide range: silly, inconsequential, meaningful, deep, droll, or heartbreaking.

“The identity of the speakers is intentionally anonymous, for it is the universality of this exchange that ‘Last Words’ honors,” Couzens says.

A former instructor at Sacramento State, UC Davis, and the San Francisco Art Institute, Couzens has done drawings and hybrid objects that have been exhibited worldwide in galleries such as the Crocker Art Museum, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and Yale University.

“Last Words” runs through Dec. 15 with an opening reception at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7, and a lecture in the gallery from 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 12.

Regular gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. For more information on the Sacramento State Library Gallery, visit www.al.csus.edu/sota/ulg or call (916) 278-4189. For media assistance, call Sacramento State’s University Communications office at (916) 278-6156. - Craig Koscho