Kristen Tordella-Williams
Opelika, Alabama
https://kristentordellawilliams.art/
IG : kristentordellawilliams

Void
2023
Edition of 2 artist books. Text by Liz Egan and edited selections from
additional Pink House Defenders. 24”x19”x1.5” closed, 48”x19” open. Secret Belgian binding, CNC plasma cut steel covers, artist made papers from her old bedsheets and denim, iron, rust, thread, and paint
24”x19”x1.5” closed, 48”x19” open

Artist Statement

The artist books Void are made using iron dust as a primary printing material through which viewers learn the impact of the overturning of Roe v. Wade through the Pink House Defenders’ experience. In the fall of 2023, Tordella-Williams and former Defender Liz Egan invited reflections on the closing of the Jackson Women’s Health Center (colloquially known as the Pink House) and the end to their work as clinic escorts in Mississippi. Egan edited those texts with her own experience into the codex of Void.

The books were printed as a variable edition of two onto mended bed sheet papers using iron dusted through laser cut paper stencils. . Each signature was then rusted and sealed. Tordella-Williams made the paper from her own used bed sheets, a material embedded with the sites of copulation, bleeding, sweat, and dreaming. The mended areas of the paper look like craters or puckered scars and vary from page to page. The signatures are bound using a secret Belgian binding and have CNC plasma cut covers. The back cover features the Pink House cut in negative. While the covers show hints of white paint that are rusted and worn, the interiors are a bright pink to represent the Pink House’s color and vibrant tenacity. The piece commemorates those who preserved access to healthcare that once was tenuously available to all Mississippians. These books serve as a memorial to a community and to the void left behind by the fall of Roe v. Wade.