Project Statement
,Mary, examines forced adoption and the mother/child homes that were run under the puritanical dictates of the Roman Catholic Church in Québec in the mid 20th century. Young pregnant unmarried women were persuaded by church and family to leave their home and community to avoid shaming the family and themselves. Isolated from family and friends, they were punished and abused in the church-run homes. Immediately after giving birth, the mothers were coerced into signing surrender documents. In many cases, they did not understand the language and implications of the legal documents.
The book appropriates renaissance images of the Virgin and Child, symbols of Christianity that have often been used to reinforce situations of oppression and injustice against women and children. Mary’s image functions as the ideal model of feminine purity and passive, submissive and humble endurance, a particular patriarchal view of women’s roles and identities. The symbolism in the images draws its strength from repetition—a form of insistence, creating a constant pressure for women of faith to emulate the values contained in the image. Mary had many similarities to the women of forced adoption including the fact that she was pregnant and unwed at the young age of thirteen. The images are repeated again in ,Mary,. Here, the semiotic reference of women’s subordinate condition is altered to reveal a different reality: the irreducible experience of loss and pain. The Roman Catholic Church repeatedly failed to live up to the moral code it imposed specifically on women.
The original renaissance paintings may be interpreted as a reflection of forced adoption from the perspective of the child. Leonardo da Vinci painted two of the images appropriated in ,Mary,. The artist was born out of wedlock and taken from his mother as a young child. The subject of Leonardo depicting his mother in his paintings was a topic that was documented in Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood by Sigmund Freud. Leonardo returned to his mother, Caterina, and cared for her later in life. Many of the women in Canada continue to search for their children today.
Collections: Joan Flasch Artists’ Books collection, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, York University Artists’ Books Collection, Toronto, Ontario, UCLA, William Andrews Clark Library, University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, and private collections
Size: 7” x 5 1/8”, 40 pages. Printed on Japanese hand made paper materials include beeswax, mica, giclée prints, and holy dirt. Covers vary in design and are made from either Japanese paper or felt. This book is limited to 25 signed and numbered copies.
Available from: www.vampandtramp.com