Testament of Women was conceived in response to Vanessa Ochs's "Sarah Laughed". The edition created between 2005 and 2006 may serve as the basis of another project aimed at a wider audience, and produced in a different format. But that remains to be seen.
The first linoleum cuts were done in the spring of 2005, along with initial research and study. The bulk of the texts and drawings were created during summer of 2005. The layout dummy was made in summer 2005, all in one longish weekend of drawing and calligraphing the compositions. The linoleum cuts were made throughout spring and summer, with one additional cut for Lilith added at the end of the summer. The printing was done from summer 2005 through summer 2006 at the Virginia Arts of the Book Center using Goudy Bold, in part because it was one of the few typefaces that we had in a range of sizes and with enough font material to set these texts.
typographic: Goudy bold was chosen on purpose to suit the neo-expressionist quality of the linoleum cuts.
imagery: Linoleum cuts have a neo-expressionist quality of certain religious art.
graphical: Compositions are asymmetrical.
openings: The layout is structured across the spreads, with a clear sense of the gutter.
turnings: These are fairly traditional, though the variations in the layouts do create a sense of rhythm from one spread to the next.
development: A series of portraits, rather than a developing narrative or structure, though Lilith closes the book and Eve opens, providing bookends. The historical progression of biblical narratives is also a determining structure.
sequence: Nothing notable.
textual: The texts have several discrete elements: scriptual citation, descriptions of a "real" woman on whom the figure is based, a retelling of the tale, and a "lesson" offered to the reader.
structure: The structure is a codex, standard format.
Testament deliberately engages historical models and contemporary women in the production of heretical lessons that push against patriarchy or submission to it. The text refuses conciliatory or submissive attitudes, and rewrites whole stories and their outcomes in order to suggest that the patriarchal legacy is still so insidiously present that it requires vigilance and active resistance in role models for women.
Johanna Drucker
type: initiating
role:
Cut blocks
author
printer
typographer
designer Decorated papers
publisher: Druckwerk and Granary
dates:
publication: 2006-07-15
publication history: Single edition, letterpress, 2006, 40 copies.
movement:
feminism (AAT)
subject:
experimental fiction (LCSH)
themes: biblical history
content form:
experimental text (local)
publication tradition:
artists' book (local)
inspiration: Sarah Laughed, by Vanessa Ochs.
related works: Narratology among J.Drucker's works, Lives of Wives by Laura Riding.
other influences: Sunday school textbooks of bible stories.
community: other Jewish Studies
manuscript type: texts
location: other author's collection
manuscript type: mockups
location: other author's collection
manuscript type: correspondence
location: other author's collection
manuscript type: other
location: other author's collection
note: linoleum cuts, original, stored in author's collection
manuscript type: other
location: other author's collection
note: original drawings and studies for figures
title note: The subject of the book is the retelling of tales of women who appear in the Old Testament, hence the title.
edition type: editioned
publisher: Druckwerk and Granary
place: Charlottesville
dates:
publication: 2006-07-15
edition size: 40 copies
note: This book was originally conceived as a Druckwerk project and Steve Clay offered to take it on as a Granary book. The title page was altered to include the additional information and also a second date, as the production took longer than expected.
horizontal: inches closed
vertical: inches closed
production means:
letterpress (local)
linoleum (local)
binding: case binding (AAT)
substrate:
bookBlock: paper
media:
ink (local) Rubber base black.
general description: Vivid poppy silk covers the boards and gives the book a contemporary feeling. The format is large enough to command some respect, but not so large as to be awkward to handle.
format: codex (AAT) Jacquonnette Binding
cover: Silk covered boards
color: no
devices: none
pagination: unpaginated
numbered?: numbered
signed?: signed
Written in response in the spring and summer of 2005. Printed in Goudy, on Rives, at the Virginia Arts of the Book Center in Charlottesvile. All linocuts, texts, printing, endsheets by the author.
manuscript type: other
location: artist's archive
note: All are preserved in the artist's archives.