This
edition of eighteen monoprints was inspired by the serendipitous finding
of a middle school science textbook: “DISCOVERING OUR WORLD,
Book One, Science for the Middle Grades,” printed in 1947. Since
encountering this book, I have researched many other sources: science
textbooks, children's encyclopedias and psychology texts, to name a
few. In the books from this era (1940's -1960's), I have found examples
of pictorial sexist propaganda that are too blatant to be called subliminal
and are shocking in the context of our era. In these books, there was
a very clearly illustrated message … Boys do, Girls watch.
The boys were the ones handling the instruments, and conducting the
experiments. They were active and innovative. The girls were portrayed
as observers, only occasionally allowed to participate, never to be
trusted with fire or sharp objects. When they did participate, they
were either assisting the boys or they were alone. In YOUNG PEOPLES
SCIENCE ENCYCLOPEDIA (Children’s Press,
Inc., reissued in 1966), even Madame Curie (the only woman scientist
mentioned) is pictured with her hands at her sides looking at her husband
who is holding the radium several paces away. Later texts, in this
spirit, show women as lab technicians, but rarely as scientists.
In this satirical
series of monoprints I use copies of the illustrations that are chine
colléd into oil-based ink monoprints.
