Wonder Woman (ONLY 100 COPIES)
Joan Lyons
Wonder Woman (ONLY 100 COPIES)
Photographs: Joan Lyons
Text: Juliet Mcgrath
Publisher: self published
72 pages
Year: 1974
Comments: Soft cover, 13.5 x 14.5 cm, title page printed on tracing paper as for the 6 pages of poems, the rest printed in Xerox. Rare Artist's book printed only of 100 copies during a workshop in 1974.
In the 1970s several of my books dealt with feminist issues. For many women, an artist’s book then seemed the perfect container for a passing observation or a site where a personal story could be translated into a public narrative. This book is a one-liner, a somewhat tongue-in-cheek contribution to the serious and theoretical feminist practice prevalent at that time. Juliet McGrath’s poem, “Wonder Woman,” is a role-reversal fantasy about a woman approaching male archetypes. Since Wonder Woman had been one of the few female heroes in the pop culture of my girlhood, I asked McGraw if we could collaborate on a book. The poem, printed on vellum, is interspersed with images of a housewife at an ironing board morphing into Wonder Woman. The cover, printed in the appropriate colors, is an image of an American flag bra. The photographs of the housewife, myself attired in timely paisley shift, are by David Heath.
Joan Lyons (American, b. 1937) is a pioneering feminist artist and one of the great unsung artists of her generation. Her groundbreaking work freely combines feminist theory and personal experience. Her work is intimate and introspective, questioning the indexical quality of photography. Lyons’ work defies every artistic taboo of the 1950s. She had been taught that contemporary art should be universal, gestural, abstract, monumental, qualities which are inherently masculine. After trying and failing to follow these mandates, Lyons’ realized that her work could not be separated from her own experiences as a woman. Her personal narrative, different in content and tone from the dominant male voice, pushed her to establish new artistic structures.
Over the past six decades, Lyons has employed a variety of difficult and obscure image-making processes. Her work spans a broad range of media including archaic photographic processes, pinhole photography, offset lithography, Xerography, screen-printing, and photo-quilt making. In the 1960s and 1970s, Lyons was one of the earliest artists to adopt xerography as an artistic practice and was recognized as an innovator in the use of Haloid Xerox drawing as an image making process. In a 1982 artist statement Lyons said “I work with what is available, a variety of optical devices. I work through complexity, to something simple and direct. This distillation process becomes more evident as time goes on. I work at those things that are evident; how I see, not conventions of seeing.”
more books tagged »women« | >> see all
-
Shadows in Paradise
by Marianna Rothen
sold -
FALKLAND ROAD LES PROSTITUEES DE BOMBAY
by Mary Ellen Mark
Euro 60 -
MIO : le bruit de la mer dans ma chambre (WITH 4 SIGNED PRINTS)
by Marc Gantier
Euro 200 -
Until I break (SIGNED) (LAST COPY)
by Thomas Sing
sold -
TOKYO HEAT WAVE (SIGNED)
by Nobuhiko Suzuki
sold -
You Could at Least Pretend to Like Yellow
by Katrien de Blauwer
Euro 60
more books tagged »Artist's book« | >> see all
-
La maison manquante (Numbered and signed, edt of 100 + 20 AP)
by Christian Boltanski
sold -
Absentee
by Sayuri Ichida
sold -
FENDU/E (SIGNED AND NUMBERED, edt of 7)
by Bastien Deschamps
Euro 2000 -
Vote No. 1 (Signed and numbered, special edt of 100)
by Mark Duffy
Euro 250 -
UNTITLED (Unique book with prints)
by Chan Wai Kwong
sold -
Nanika attaka nakattaka (if something happened or not )
by Yohji Jikihara
price on request
more books tagged »seventies« | >> see all
-
Image Shop Camp Vol - Spécial Arles ! (PINK SILKSCREEN COLLECT...
by Collective
Euro 200 -
Salome (pocket version)
by Tetsuya Ichimura
sold -
For a language to come
by Takuma Nakahira
sold -
70'S HARAJUKU
by Collective
Euro 35 -
The garden of Sodom
by Yasuhiro Yoshioka
sold -
TEMPORADA FULGOR
by Collective
sold
Books from the Virtual Bookshelf josefchladek.com