Interventions On Perfect Bound Books (2022)
In designing this project, I considered how books usually present academic material in a dense and dry way. I wanted to see how I could physically change the form of a book to make it more interactive, engaging, and communal between the author, subject matter, and the reader. The book focuses on sociological concepts of how motherhood is used to control female sexuality.
I created images from screenprinting, photographs, and academic text about motherhood, domestic labor, female sexuality, and the female nude. I then bound the pages into a “perfect bound book” and sliced them horizontally into five parts. I used pink string to sew each section back together. The viewer could make their experience and argument by turning each book section at a different pace. I also sewed some pages together to create pockets where I hid direct quotes from sociologists, such as Patricia Hill Collins, for readers to pull out and read. I finished the book by attaching a ribbon closure to allude to the ribbon used on female lingerie.