Amberwood Press, Inc. ~ New York |
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| Bookworks on female and male terminology by Nava Atlas | |
Dear Literary Ladies 12 x 9.75"; 30 pages. Printed digitally in various fonts from the Quadrant family and the script font Affable Black. Constructed with both actual and virtual ephemera. Color photocopy and archival pigment ink on rag paper. Bound in cloth with tipped on illustrations. Three metal screw posts at spine. Nava Atlas: "Dear Literary Ladies is one component of a series of interrelated, multidisciplinary works. This artist's book is a companion to the blog of the same name both of which fancifully pose questions on writing and the writing life, with the answer derived from a classic author's own words. The narratives in this limited edition book are gathered from the letters, journals, and autobiographies of fourteen authors including Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Sand, Willa Cather, Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edith Wharton, and others [Sarah Orne Jewett, Colette, L. M. Montgomery, Virginia Woolf, Edna Ferber, Zora Neale Hurston, and Anaïs Nin]. Reaching back to answer contemporary questions with voices from literary history reflects the timeless concerns of writers, with a particular emphasis on these issues from a female perspective. $450( includes a copy of the trade edition) |
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| The Literary Ladies' Guide Guide to the Writing Life Inspiration and Advice from Celebrated Women Authors Who Paved the Way By Nava Atlas Portland, Maine: Sellers Publishing, 2011. Trade edition. 7.5 x 9.5"; 192 pages. Illustrated. Casebound. Glossy illustrated boards. In matching dust jacket. Filled with more than 100 archival images. Signed by the artist. Press release: “In The Literary Ladies’ Guide to the Writing Life, Nava Atlas presents twelve celebrated women authors and draws on their diaries, letters, memoirs, and interviews to show how they expressed their views on the subjects of importance to every writer– from carving out time to write to conquering their inner demons to developing a ‘voice’ to balancing the demands of family life with the need to write. Atlas provides her own illuminating commentary as well and reveals how the lessons of classic women writers of the past still resonate with women writing today.” $18.95 |
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(Mis)labeling Hillary 7.75 x 11.25"; 10 pages. Accordion structure with archival inkjet print. Bound in blue cloth with full page illustrated front cover. Nava Atlas: "(Mis)labeling Hillary continues a series of works that explores language pertaining to female stereotyping. In this artist's book, images of Hillary Clinton appropriated from news articles are teamed with brief comments attributed to a variety of news sources, from blogs to mainstream newspapers and magazines. Each quote contains a common female epithet that has been applied to Hillary, from the relatively benign hag, battle-ax, and ice queen, building up to the ultimate bitch, whore, cunt. From my perspective, this book poses two questions: Why do media (both mainstream and underground) feel justified in getting so personal, going so far beyond issues and even personality when it comes to writing about Hillary? And how can any woman, flaws and all, ever crack what she termed the 'highest glass ceiling' when the most degrading feminine epithets are still so casually tossed off? It seems that whoever said that sexism trumps racism was correct in this instance. I'm outraged, even though I ended up voting for Barack Obama . . ." |
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Love and Marriage 7 x 10.5"; 32 pages. Digital offset printing. Saddle-stitched. Nava Atlas: "Love and Marriage is an altered comic book utilizing art from the 1950s. The original dialog has been removed, replaced by dry deadpan banter, between male and female characters on the mythology of modern marriage, supermoms, media’s obsession with domesticity, over the-top weddings, and monogamy. Interspersed are ads from the era, whose absurdity is left intact, in their original, unaltered state." The comic books that supplied the art are credited on the inside of the back cover. |
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| Nava Atlas: "... artist's books that look at the language of sexuality, and the contrasts between the female and male terminology. Most of the terms for sexually prolific men are most often either positive, or at worst, imply a certain naughtiness, while the terms for women are uniformly negative, signifying promiscuity, lack of morality, and prostitution. While this may not be exactly surprising, seeing these terms in the context of iconic 1950s-style imagery is a gentle yet jarring reminder that despite the so-called "sexual revolution," the language of sexuality has not much changed, and is still largely a throwback to attitudes of the past. "There is still not a single common noun for a sexually active female that has a positive connotation. In addition, negative sexual terms are bandied about for non-sexual purposes: I found that many similar female epithets, and worse, have been applied to Hillary Clinton (resulting in another artist's book related graphically and conceptually to this one), especially during her run for the presidential nomination. These books examine a certain intransigence in the usage of language that reinforces long-held stereotypes and attitudes." | |
Sluts & Studs 6.5 x 14"; 20 pages. Flag structure. Illustrated paper-covered boards with quarter book cloth. Archival inkjet-printed pages. Nava Atlas: "Sluts & Studs looks at the language of sexuality, and the contrasts between the female and male terminology via dictionary definitions. Most of the terms for men who are sexually prolific are most often either positive, or at worst, imply a certain naughtiness, while the terms for women are uniformly negative, signifying promiscuity, lack of morality, and prostitution. While this may not be exactly surprising seeing these terms in the context of iconic 1950s style imagery is a gentle yet jarring reminder that despite the so called 'sexual revolution' the language of sexuality has not much changed, and is still largely a throwback to attitudes of the past."
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Tomcats & Trollops 6.5 x 14"; 19 pages. Flag structure. Illustrated paper-covered boards with quarter cloth. Archival inkjet-printed pages. Nava Atlas: "This book is a variation on Sluts & Studs, with the vintage images showing amorous couples instead of the single male/female images of the previous book, but using the same language and dictionary definitions. This makes the question all the more poignant; if each half of the couple is enjoying their pairing, why, then, is the language applied to them different?"
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| Amberwood Press, Inc. Out of Print Title: • Hand Jobs • Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife • Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife: Two volume set |
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Page last update: 12.21.11
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