Book + Art: Artists' books from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture

Bea Nettles

Bea Nettles has been producing iconic feminist photography and book arts since the 1970s. She has taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology, the Tyler School of Art at Temple University, and the University of Illinois, and given numerous international lectures and workshops. Her work has been exhibited in over fifty museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As the work featured here demonstrates, Nettles often bases her work on autobiographical experience while simultaneously foregrounding its social context.

Click on each image and use the right/left arrows to see more views of the book.

Aging Gracefully (View 1)

Aging Gracefully

Aging Gracefully (View 2)

Aging Gracefully

Aging Gracefully (View 3)

Aging Gracefully

Aging Gracefully

Bea Nettles. 2002.

This tunnel book creates a three dimensional photographic timeline of the artist's mother's life.

Life's Lessons: a Mother's Journal (Cover)

Life's Lessons: a Mother's Journal (Cover)

Life’s Lessons: A Mother’s Journal (Interior)

Life's Lessons: a Mother's Journal (Interior)

Life's Lessons: A Mother's Journal

Bea Nettles. Inky Press Productions, 1990.

This hybrid of text and photography contemplates the mother-daughter relationship.

The Skirted Garden: 20 Years of Images

The Skirted Garden: 20 Years of Images

The Skirted Garden: 20 Years of Images

Bea Nettles. Inky Press Productions, 1990.

This retrospective celebrates the career of Bea Nettles.

28 Days: A Deck of Cards (Case)

28 Days: A Deck of Cards (Case)

28 Days: A Deck of Cards (Card)

28 Days: A Deck of Cards (Card)

28 Days: a Deck of Cards

Bea Nettles. Inky Press Productions, 1991.

Case. The artists includes medical explication and her own experience of menstruation to represent the twenty-eight day cycle.

Flamingo in the Dark (Cover)

Flamingo in the Dark (Cover)

Flamingo in the Dark (Interior)

Flamingo in the Dark (Interior)

Flamingo in the Dark. Bea Nettles

Inky Press Productions, 1979.

This book presents a visual autobiography documenting both the artist's experience and fantasies.

Grace's Daughter

Grace's Daughter

Grace's Daughter

Bea Nettles. Inky Press Productions, 1994.

The text and accompanying photographs offer a collection of stories about family life.

The Observer: My Constant Companion (Cover)

The Observer: My Constant Companion (Cover)

The Observer: My Constant Companion (Interior)

The Observer: My Constant Companion (Interior)

The Observer: My Constant Companion

Bea Nettles. Borowsky Center for Publications Arts at the University of the Arts, 2005.

The Observer takes a series of images of the artist from age 10 to 50. The cut outs produce the unexpected transposition of youthful eyes on a more aged face.

Turning 50

Turning 50

Turning 50

Bea Nettles. Inky Press Productions, 1995./p>

This collection of photographs and observations reflect the artist's meditation on aging.

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