This year’s theme for Women’s History Month is “Telling Our Stories.” Lehman Library and the Pride & Gender Equity (PAGE) Center are pleased to bring you a display featuring authors, poetry, and a visual art featuring women's and critical gender thought, experience, and empowerment.
The pieces are graciously loaned to us by members of the campus community. Featured are:
We Recruit, by Lesbian Avengers
Among the group’s symbols were a bomb with a fuse and the slogan "We Recruit." (Courtesy of the Lesbian Herstory Archives). In 2021, Lesbian Avenger logo designer Carrie Moyer sold the image and slogan to The Gap for $7000 and a limited number of t-shirts were produced. Other founding members opposed the commodification of the logo and slogan in this way, describing it as “irreconcilable with the anti-establishment ethos of the group.” The story and some of the group’s history is covered by the New York Times (Read it with your Shippensburg login at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=edsgin&AN=edsgcl.666551896&site=eds-live&scope=site&custid=s3915936)
Becca, by Tina Arroyo, 2001 Tina Arroyo is the sweetest pea ever. (Contributor bio for “Size Queen” in FaT GiRL Archive).
Nest (etching from zinc plate) by Kimberly L Lindsley, 2007
Nest is the beauty of feminine sexuality and the birth of a new swooning all around making me dizzy with that fresh sweet smell. I hold within a little place of refuge that my little egg nuzzles into every month before it flutters away. (Artist’s statement)
Book Worm, color print, artist information unavailable.
Psychopathia Sexualis: Congenital Sexual Inversion in Women by Ruth Van Erp, 1997
The sexologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing described female sexual inversion as "the masculine soul, heaving in the female bosom". The artist was part of a Butch-Femme couple whose gender expression and role were an essential part of their lesbian identity as individuals and committed partners.
Earth Cleansing Dream (wood cut) by Gillyan Gato, 1995
Resist by Les LaRue, Illustrator and graphic designer.
March 2023: Offer (paper cut) by Nikki McClure.
McClure's papercutting technique was born and bred out of the Olympia, Washington independent music scene. There, local artists emphasized everything handmade and self-published. The idea was to do a lot with a little. The result was a rich community sharing artistry and ideas. McClure found herself deeply embedded in this community which focused on hands-on and accessible art. (From Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History)
Georgia O’Keefe – a print volume of the artist’s works.
Mickalene Thomas - a print volume of the artist’s works.
Brooklyn artist Mickalene Thomas is best known for her elaborate, collage-inspired paintings, embellished with rhinestones, enamel, and colorful acrylics. Her depictions of African American women explore a spectrum of black female beauty and sexual identity while constructing images of femininity and power. Find out more about this artist at her web site (http://mickalenethomas.com/ )
Your comfort is my silence (found image and collage) by Barbara Kruger
“I try to make work that joins the
seductions of wishful thinking with
the criticality of knowing better.”
Barbara Kruger’s work speaks directly to us. Using pronouns like “I,” “You,” and “We” and bold declarative statements, Kruger’s work prompts us to question what we see and hear in mainstream media, and to contemplate how these messages shape our identities and society. (From the MoMA)
She layers found photographs from existing sources with pithy and aggressive text that involves the viewer in the struggle for power and control that her captions speak to. In their trademark black letters against a slash of red background, some of her instantly recognizable slogans read “I shop therefore I am,” and “Your body is a battleground." (From The Art History Archive: Feminist Art)
Oil on panel, three works by Courtney Billow.
As I began to experiment with non-representational elements, I recognized the complexities and lyrical potential of something so simple as a line. I am intrigued by each component of my work and the way that it speaks, outlining a narrative that reaches into my mind with each compositional decision that I make. Formally, my work is represented by various layers of color and value. I manipulate the transparency of these layers and create overlays of loosely defined shapes and lines. Balancing colors and their transparency is one of the most vital principles addressed in each of my pieces. Without color balance, focus is lost and everything falls apart. (Artist’s statement)
To learn more about resources available to you at the library, check out our guide to Women’s Studies: https://library.ship.edu/womens_studies For campus resources, you can connect with the PASSHE Women’s Consortium https://www.ship.edu/life/resources/page/womensconsortium/
Shippensburg University is proud to offer both a certificate and a minor course of study in Women’s and Gender Studies. https://www.ship.edu/programs/?keywords=CAS-WGS
#Women’sHistory #TellYourStory #ShipIsIt
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