Tamar Stone

After creating a few books in paper, I realized that I wanted the stories that I was telling to become more 3-D, not just text on paper but wanting the stories to become part of the textile. By embroidering the text into the fabric, the text is tactile and the viewer could become more intimately involved with the stories being told, as they would have to interact with the book - by untying the corset strings in order to read the text.

Having to take the time to slow down to unlace all the ties, undo the buckles in order read all the text, is part of the contemplation and therapy of the process; echoing what women have been experiencing for a century of dressing and undressing.

The text from a variety of sources from behavioral manuals of the 19th and 20th centuries, which describe prescriptions of public and private deportment, as well as personal narratives of modern women who have lived with these physical constraints.

All of the text for this book can be found on my website. You can also view videos of my work at: https://vimeo.com/user19754518/videos

This project was built around a vintage salesman pamphlet for Binner Corsets. I was drawn to the photos of the women in their corsets posing with inanimate objects, as well as the intimate size of the pamphlet that fit into the palm of my hand.

All the images are from the Binner Corset pamphlet. The text is also from that pamphlet in addition to various historical ads, etiquette manuals and quotations taken from women throughout the last century on their feelings about beauty and aging. The pages are printed on fabrics that are associated with women’s intimate apparel (silk satin, and sheer silk chiffon).

The experience of reading this piece becomes extremely intimate, from the time you hold the book in your hands, unlace the girdle to open the book and read the personal text while feeling the sensuousness of the pages between your fingers.

The text for this piece can be found on it’s page on my website.

This is the second of two books in a series dealing with the issues of mothers, their daughters and the relationships between them The lessons passed along in those relationships are echoed through the bonds that girls have with their sisters, and in this case, siblings that were corseted “together.”

Mothers were able to mold the expectations that young girls had while growing up. With self help books of the period in addition with strongly worded corset advertising, mothers were told that “Every mother should know how essential these waists are to the correct physical development of her children.”

Corset waists were named with the idea that they grow along with the girl, providing “freedom in childhood” with names like “Little Beginners Waists,” “Kiddie-Work-A-Day Waists,” and the “Junior Corset Waist,” among others. The text includes 19th and 20th century quotes from girls wearing these corsets as well as advertising text of the era.

All the specs and text for this piece can be found on on my website. There is also a video of the other volume of this piece at: https://vimeo.com/71706366

This is the second part of two books in a series dealing with the history of women, exercise and corsets. The first book involved advertisements and images in the mid-to-late 19th century.

This piece was built upon the images found in Bernarr MacFadden’s 1901 book, “The Power and Beauty of Superb Womanhood.” What starts out to be a book about women and health, showing various exercises for physical self-improvement, seem to shift gears (at least for whoever was expected to be reading this book) for the women became topless, although the exercises involved didn’t seem to involved that part of the body.

With exercise (once society got past the debate whether or not women should be exercising at all for the fear that it would take away their strength needed to produce children), the underlying message seemed to say, that you will need to be in shape in order to ensure happiness,alue of suppleness and symmetry in enhancing womanly beauty can hardly be emphasized too strongly… Why should she not reduce herself to a weight which shall make her a symmetrical woman, and inasmuch as the only obstacle to her being a beautiful woman is her superfluous flesh.”

MacFadden leaves the reader with these final thoughts to mull over, “Who can estimate the value of Superb Womanhood? Without this Power of Superb Womanhood, without the Beauty and Strength of Body which is part of this ideal condition, a woman is not woman. If old age has not intervened, the proud consciousness of the attainment of Superb Womanhood may be realized. Even though you are on the downward slope of life, your closing years may be rendered healthy and helpful.”

All the specs and text for this piece can be found on on my website.

The advice and stories of women (from Elizabeth Cady Stanton, to contemporary woman) who have used their beds as a place of rest, solace - a place they can call their own.

The Bed Project: Because women have always been associated with the home, hearth and all the domestic duties that belong to them, this project is about memories and moments that are attached to specific objects within our homes − specifically beds. Historically our life cycle begins and ends in the bed. It used to be that all of our life cycles (birth, sickness, death) occurred in our beds, in the family home. In the second half of the 20th century so much of our lives have been taken out of the home and moved to places where we become handled by specialists i.e. the hospital bed or any other specialized institution.

It is because of these domestic associations, that in order to read these intimate stories the reader must unmake each bed, pulling back the covers to “turn the pages.” In order to close the book, one must re-make the bed, mimicking the actions of women’s housework that have been done for centuries.

More about this ongoing project - and all the text for this bed can be found on my web page.

This is a life-size antique tuberculosis cure bed - rescued from the town dump in Saranac Lake. It has sewn into it the stories of girls and women who spent their days “curing” in tuberculosis sanatoriums across America, including Alice James in the late 1880’s to Isabel Smith in the mid 1940’s.

The stories of 16 year old Evelyn Bellak are told through her diary, whose entries are embroidered throughout the bed coverings as well as images of her diary pages that are printed on the mattress and pillow. Evelyn was at the Ray Brook Sanitarium in Ray Brook, NY (in the Adirondacks).

This piece also includes text from an Adirondack Porch Reclining Chair advertisement, as well as using vintage Burnitol sputum cups and a Bullseye Brand shot bag.

The Bed Project:

Because women have always been associated with the home, hearth and all the domestic duties that belong to them, this project is about memories and moments that are attached to specific objects within our homes − specifically beds. Historically our life cycle begins and ends in the bed. It used to be that all of our life cycles (birth, sickness, death) occurred in our beds, in the family home. In the second half of the 20th century so much of our lives have been taken out of the home and moved to places where we become handled by specialists i.e. the hospital bed or any other specialized institution.

It is because of these domestic associations, that in order to read these intimate stories the reader must unmake each bed, pulling back the covers to “turn the pages.” In order to close the book, one must re-make the bed, mimicking the actions of women’s housework that have been done for centuries.

More about this ongoing bed project - and all the text and specs for this bed can be found on my web page.

This project was inspired by finding a piece of sheet music titled “Bed Making Song” from the 1916 book, “Easy Steps in Housekeeping or Mary Frances’ Adventures Among the Doll People” – part of a prescriptive series of books for children that taught them about housekeeping – The author states ”...the three arts which have most to do with three great needs of life – food, clothing and shelter.”

Other historical and contemporary texts - some instructive, some personal memories, some news worthy, come together to create the layered bed coverings that make up this children’s housework bed.

Bed Project:

Because women have always been associated with the home, hearth and all the domestic duties that belong to them, this project is about memories and moments that are attached to specific objects within our homes − specifically beds. Historically our life cycle begins and ends in the bed. It used to be that all of our life cycles (birth, sickness, death) occurred in our beds, in the family home. In the second half of the 20th century so much of our lives have been taken out of the home and moved to places where we become handled by specialists i.e. the hospital bed or any other specialized institution.

It is because of these domestic associations, that in order to read these intimate stories the reader must unmake each bed, pulling back the covers to “turn the pages.” In order to close the book, one must re-make the bed, mimicking the actions of women’s housework that have been done for centuries.

More about this ongoing bed project - and all the text and specs for this bed can be found on my web page.