Vengeance is Mine
4.5″ x 4.5″ closed 4.5″ x 45″ open, variant edition of 20 This book is part of the series, body + soul, which began with photographs of twin performance artists, Emily and Abigail Taylor. The text, “conceived in deception, precious cargo, stalked by hate, sacrificed to a vengeful god”, refers to mothers whose children are sacrificed. Inkjet prints, collaged on Epson paper. The cover is lead, both beautiful and dangerous, with a metal lily referencing life. See work related to this book, the series Body + Soul.
OneLife
5.75″ x 4.5″ x 1″ Glass photographic plate on cloth keyhole binding, paper, collage This book contains documents relating to the life of James Ward of Longmeadow, Massachusetts around the turn of the century.
Jerusalem
4 .5″ x 4.5″ closed, 4.5″ x 27″ open Concertina “pop-up” book, cloth, paper, wood, enamel, red vellum.
Magdalene Laundries
6″ x 4.25″ x 1.25″ Leather Coptic binding over papyrus. Collage. In 1993 when property held by the Sisters of Charity in Dublin was to be sold, unmarked graves of 133 women were discovered. The shameful history of the Magdalene laundries can be found on the web and in the excellent movie by Peter Mullan, The Magdalene Sisters. I saw the movie in Ireland in the fall of 2002 and began this book shortly after. In reviewing the “Conceptually Bound” exhibit in ARTSHIFT San Jose, Julia Bradshaw says: At a smaller scale, but never-the-less similarly powerful, Dorothy Simpson Krause used a small news item and a film as the spark for her project. A small dense book bound using a black leather Coptic binding with red leather accents, hand-sewn headbands and papyrus pages treated with a variety of collage and drawing methods, Krause has created a precious item that at first sight appears to be a hymnal or a bible. Krause’s book ‘Magdalene Laundries’ was inspired by her learning that “in 1993 when property held by the Sisters of Charity in Dublin was to be sold, unmarked graves of 133 women were found.” Each page of this thick, intense book is hand-inscribed or hand-printed with text or facts or makes use of found photographs to express the poignant histories of some of the girls who were imprisoned against their will. In its entirety, the book feels like a prayer to the God of Never-Again.
Guardians
5″ x 6.25″ x 2.25″ Wood and metal box containing concertina book with metal figures. Made in India. Also related to this trip are three series of work, Passages and Reflective Visions, and the books law and custom , many truths and India.
Mind Body
20″ x 15″ x 1″ Revised Stanford-Benet Scales box with artist book made from a 6th Grade Physiology notebook. Collage materials include metal, leather, polymer clay and a bottle which contained hydrozone, a controversial medical treatment for mind and body.
MonkeyGrip
4.5” x 16.5” in box 4.5” x 2” x 2” Year-of-the-monkey laser cutouts were glued onto separate sheets of oriental joss paper then pasted to a continuous backing and housed in a cylindrical Monkey Grip tire-patch can.
Weaver
7” x 5.75” Single fold collaged book, containing a vintage wood cut-out of Mahatma Gandhi and world leaders with hand-woven cloth cover. Made in India.
India
7.25″ x 4.75″, 124 pages. Mixed media journal with paper hard cover. Made in India. A series of nine prints which combine scans of the journal pages with photographs, is called Jewel. The process of creating the prints and a page-turning book with images from the series can also be seen. Also related to this trip are two other series of work, Passages and Reflective Visions , and the books law and custom , many truths and Guardians.
Law and Custom
Mixed media triptych 8.75″ x ll” closed, 8.75″ x 22″ open. Components found in India. The text, which is below, refers to the status of women in India. THE DOWRY PROHIBITION ACT OF 1961 abolishes giving and taking dowry, (a valuable property or thing which is given by the brides family to the groom), at the time of marriage. In the First International Conference on Dowry and Bride-Burning in India held at Harvard University in 1995, Rani Jethmalani and Subhadra Chaturvedi, who practice law at the Supreme Court of India, stated that the government statistics are a result of gross under-reporting and the actual “unofficial” number of dowry death in India is between 12,000 and 13,000 every year. An equal number of brides are beaten so mercilessly that they become invalid for the rest of their lives. That makes an estimated total of 25,000 brides “killed or maimed” every year in India over dowry disputes. Himendra Thakur, Chairperson, Board of Directors, International Society Against Dowry and Bride-Burning in India, Inc. (ISADABBI) THE SUPPRESSION OF IMMORAL TRAFFIC IN WOMEN AND GIRLS ACT OF 1956-57 deals with prostitution and the welfare of fallen women. Every state is expected to appoint women police and social workers and set up protective homes where women will be given trainingso that they may earn a livelihood Probably more than a million women and children are employed in India’s brothels. Twenty percent of Bombay’s brothel population, estimated at 100,000, is thought to be girls under the age of eighteen, and half of that population may be infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). They are subjected to conditions tantamount to slavery and to serious physical abuse. Held in debt bondage for years at a time, they are raped and subjected to other forms of torture, to severe beatings, exposure to AIDS, and arbitrary imprisonment. Brothels are tightly controlled, and the girls are under constant surveillance. Escape is virtually impossible. Human Rights Watch Vol. 12, No. 5, October 2000 Chatterjee (1990) estimates every sixth infant death is due to gender discrimination. Of the 15 million girls born in India each year, nearly 25% will not live to see their 15th birthday. A daughter is viewed as a liability, and is conditioned to believe that she is inferior and subordinate to men. Sons are idolized and celebrated. “May you be the mother of a hundred sons” is a common Hindu wedding blessing. The origin of the Indian idea of appropriate female behavior can be traced to Manu in 200 B.C.: “In childhood a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons; a woman must never be independent.”