Her Body and Other Parties
This project reimagines the cover design of Carmen Maria Machado’s 2018 collection of short stories entitled, Her Body and Other Parties. Inspired by the deep vein of feminism that runs through the stories in this book, I was drawn to incorporate graphics of a recent linoleum-cut print I made based on Artemisia Gentileschi’s 1625 portrait of Mary Magdeline.
I felt Gentileschi and Machado both shared an interest in reclaiming female narrative, which easily lent itself to the design process of this new cover. While the viewer may take the design at face value, and recognize the woman composed of green lines on the cover as a reference to the book’s first protagonist, who lives with a mysterious green ribbon around her neck, there lies beneath the image a deep signifier to a long history of feminist art making.
Design Process
“Mary Magdelene as Meloncholy”, Artemisia Gentileschi, 1625, oil on canvas.
Old master painter, Artemisia Gentileschi, created this work as a sort of self portrait, roughly a decade after Gentileschi was raped in 1611. The pose and stylization of Mary in Gentileschi’s painting also make clear reference to earlier works by male painters, including Caravaggio, and Michelangelo. Her re-appropriation of the female form in this work, negates the presence of the male gaze; contextualizing the figure in a autobiographical and feminist perspective that has left a lasting impact on art history.
9x12 in. hand-carved Linoleum block alongside printed image.
Drawn by the deeply-feminist and appropriative nature of Gentileschi’s original painting, I was inspired to integrate this powerful image into the cover design of Machado’s book, which I felt shared the same energy. Ergo, I created this 9x12 inch linoleum cut print that was later manipulated digitally and overlaid with typography.
Alternative Cover Designs
