Learning to Knit
These nesting books, meant to be very pretty, frilly, and “girly” are about pregnancy and abortion during these troubling times when so many people harshly judge what they don’t understand, placing women’s healthcare and women’s lives at high risk. The pages of the outer book are shaped into many vulvas which are then bound together. The inner book is shaped like a woman’s cervix and is bound around a knitting needle protruding well beyond the pages while a string of glass beads bleeds down the side. The text reads “you should have kept your knees together slut,” a common insult callously hurled at women. Glass beads adorn both books, as well as bleed from the inner book.
Knitting needles and wire hangers are just two of the many types of commonly used “instruments” for self-administered abortions. They can and do cause irreparable harm and even death to women who desperately take matters into their own hands when they are denied healthcare. As more and more states are restricting women’s access to healthcare, we are finding a resurgence of an underground network of women helping women. To avoid legal repercussions, offers of aid are often in code such as “free camping” or “learn to knit” offering a safe space to recover.
Handmade paper, coffee filters, glass beads, bamboo knitting needle. 11" x 11" x 6" nested. Edition of 4. 2024.
Knitting needles and wire hangers are just two of the many types of commonly used “instruments” for self-administered abortions. They can and do cause irreparable harm and even death to women who desperately take matters into their own hands when they are denied healthcare. As more and more states are restricting women’s access to healthcare, we are finding a resurgence of an underground network of women helping women. To avoid legal repercussions, offers of aid are often in code such as “free camping” or “learn to knit” offering a safe space to recover.
Handmade paper, coffee filters, glass beads, bamboo knitting needle. 11" x 11" x 6" nested. Edition of 4. 2024.