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Art and introduction by Judy Chicago
Text selections from Anaïs Nin
Art History / Feminist Studies / Sexuality / Gender
Hardcover
7.25 x 9.5 inches
102 pages including 1 multipage gatefold
21 four-color illustrations
ISBN: 978-1-57687-182-9
Iconic erotic writer Anaïs Nin wrote of feminist artist Judy Chicago in the seventh volume of her Diaries, “Our first meeting was very interesting. I was intimidated by [Judy’s] powerful personality. She was intimidated by the lady of the Diaries…. But what happened is that we immediately felt a tenderness and recognized that we needed
each other.”
From this encounter, a personal friendship and professional alliance flowered and continued to bloom until Nin’s death in 1977. Nin, a feminist of the first wave, considered Chicago her “radical daughter.” Where Nin was graceful, Chicago was confrontational. Where Nin was evocative, Chicago was provocative. Yet both sought the same goal: freedom for female self-expression, unfettered by the constraints of patriarchal posturing. Their relationship—a dialogue between the early and latter halves of the twentieth century—helped Chicago transcend her internalized taboos and fully express her creative power.
As a tribute to the legacy of her mentor, Chicago shares some of her memories of their encounters in her introduction to Fragments from the Delta of Venus, a collection of twenty artworks pairing Chicago’s sensuous watercolor images with extremely evocative phrases from Nin’s famed collection of stories. The book promises to be a breakthrough in the history of erotic art, which—for centuries—has belonged almost exclusively to male artists and a male audience. Fragments from the Delta of Venus might be said to be a continuation of Chicago and Nin’s earlier dialogue, illuminating, in both images and words, the powerful fantasies and desires of the female mind.
Fragments from the Delta of Venus will be released on Valentine’s Day, 2004, perfectly timed to warm your lover’s heart—and more.
