Some Disordered Interior Geometries
[Philadelphia]: Synapse, 1981. Offset. Saddle-stapled in illustrated wraps. [22] pp. First edition. 6 ½ x 9 1/8 in. Minor bump to third leaf; else fine. Item #6571
The only artists’ book published during Woodman’s lifetime - printed in an edition of 500, of which most were distributed at her funeral.
This work is the facsimile of a unique book object she created around 1980, a collage work constructed over a slender Italian primer on mathematics. Woodman made alterations to various diagrams and theorems within, and overlaid these pages with her own desolate photography. The result is a sequence in which a scientific order and education is cut and augmented by irrational and unknowable forces, blending subject and surroundings both in and outside the photo frame.
The book’s release coincided with Woodman’s tragic suicide in January 1981 at age 22. The publisher ceased distribution after releasing only 500 copies, of which 450 are said to have been sent to the artists’ funeral. Though Woodman was largely unknown at the time of her death, her bleak, lush, and oneiric work has since been celebrated widely. She was particularly influential for young feminists developing a new set of political and aesthetic concerns in online communities in the early 2010s.
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