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

Hearth + Home

The books featured here reinterpret traditional feminine roles as they reinvent the book form, foregrounding women’s labor in the home and exploring both the fulfilling and demoralizing dimensions of domesticity.

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

Household Objects: a Mix 'n' Match Project for Both Sides of the Brain

Household Objects: a Mix 'n' Match Project for Both Sides of the Brain (Cover)

Household Objects: A Mix 'n' Match Project for Both Sides of the Brain (Cards)

Household Objects: a Mix 'n' Match Project for Both Sides of the Brain (Cards)

Household Objects: a Mix 'n' Match Project for Both Sides of the Brain

Wendy Fernstrum. fernwerks press, 2002.

Fourteen flashcards set in a Tupperware container include prose poetry and blind contour sketches of common household artifacts.

Anxious homes : cursory-cleaning for the imminent arrival of visitors or how to give the impression of a clean house in under 20 minutes (Cover)

Anxious Homes (Cover)

Anxious Homes: Cursory-cleaning for the imminent arrival of visitors, or how to give the impression of a clean house in under 20 minutes (Interior)

Anxious Homes (Interior)

Anxious homes: cursory-cleaning for the imminent arrival of visitors or how to give the impression of a clean house in under 20 minutes

Jackie Batey. Damp Flat Books, 2006.

Cover. This satirical pamphlet instructions the time-pressed reader in the art of superficial cleanliness and instant domestic artifice sure appease any drop-in visitor.

Iron (1)

Iron

Iron (2)

Iron

Iron

Tana Kellner. Women's Studio Workshop, 2008.

In order to read the text — which traces the history of the eponymous appliance — on must actually iron the pages.

Transplant (1)

Transplant

Transplant (View 2)

Transplant

Transplant

Jennifer Brooks. Tree House Press, 2006.

This collection of stories about the home is read by pulling on the translucent inner pages so that the text is revealed through the house-shaped die cut.

How I Lost My Vegetarianism (Cover)

How I Lost My Vegetarianism (Cover)

How I Lost My Vegetarianism (Interior)

How I Lost My Vegetarianism (Interior)

How I Lost My Vegetarianism

Katherine Aoki. Women's Studio Workshop, 1998.

This book features the stories of fourteen women struggling with vegetarianism.

Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife (Cover)

Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife (Cover)

Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife (Interior)

Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife (Interior)

Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife

Nava Atlas. Amberwood Press, 2007.

Cover. This satirical cookbook includes recipes such as Gender Role Casserole, Hyper Critical Raisin Role, and Souffle of Fallen Expectations.

Daily Bread (Cover)

Daily Bread (Cover)

Daily Bread (Open)

Daily Bread (Open)

Daily Bread

Amy Pirkle. Perkolator Press, 2006.

Cover. These foldout pages include illustrations relief printed from linoleum blocks. The text explores the cultural associations of bread.

Good Eats: sit down, relax & enjoy: it's the cook's choice: selections from an appetizing array of well-seasoned moments and finely diced tales (Case)

Good Eats (Case)

Good Eats: sit down, relax & enjoy: it's the cook's choice: selections from an appetizing array of well-seasoned moments and finely diced tales (Card)

Good Eats (Card)

Good Eats: sit down, relax & enjoy: it's the cook's choice: selections from an appetizing array of well-seasoned moments and finely diced tales (Card, reverse)

Good Eats (Card, reverse)

Good Eats: sit down, relax & enjoy: it's the cook's choice: selections from an appetizing array of well-seasoned moments and finely diced tales

Carissa Carman and Gretchen Hooker. Women's Studio Workshop, 2005.

Case. The casing holds a place setting and recipe cards which contemplate the intersection of food, family, place, and memory.

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