With the book’s horror vacui-like way of filling the demarcated spaces completely with texts, it feels … claustrophobic but also more intimate. The texts are used ironically. When turning a page, the drawing to the left on the just turned sheet remains visible but hazy, with the mirror image of the text forming illegible abstract patterns. … The book has still another added dimension: leafing through it is almost like peeling off the layers of an onion, whereby the transparent layers of misogynist folk wisdom are removed from their permanent place on the right-hand side of the book. After doing this it seems like the house no longer rests on solid ground. Moreover, while turning the pages, the house ends up being filled from roof to cellar, not only with women’s tasks but also with the hostility toward women that permeates every room. The house thus feels like both a cage and a workspace, and as if a woman’s home is for others but not for herself.

Reference note:
Archival inkjet printing on Dobbin Mill papers of house & floor plans, with added proverbs about women's work in the home from around the world.

Illustrated on page 152 and 153 of "Book Art Object", The Codex Foundation, 2008.

illustrated on page 24 and 25 of "Art, Books and Related Objects" by David Jury in Baseline, 2007.

Exhibition notes:
Creative Research: The Artists’ Books of Veronika Schäpers, Robbin Ami Silverberg and Julie Chen JBCBA, WAM

22 September to 15 December 2022

Ref: GB/11127