Ray Werner is one baker who doesn't mind if his bread makes people think of bricks.

He's the guy behind "Bricks for Bread: The Pittsburgh Community Brick Oven Project." The driving force behind the community oven that opened last summer in Braddock, he's now hoping to collect enough bricks, from all over the region, for the next of what he hopes will be a series of ovens.

He says interested communities include Wilkinsburg, Polish Hill and the North Side.

He's "built" the beginnings of an oven as his part of "Gestures: An Exhibition of Small, Site-Specific Works," which opens tomorrow at the North Side's Mattress Factory.

Bring a brick to the opening and he'll give you a slice of brick-oven-baked bread and tell you more about his vision of "a community of community brick ovens, and Pittsburgh would have the bragging rights," as he notes in an e-mail. "Be the first city to do it. I just know how a community brick oven can bring people together."

The "Gestures" show runs through June 21 (opening reception from 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow is $10; more at mattress.org).

Read about the pioneer Braddock Oven and Ray Werner at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08276/916608-34.stm