The cover, in closed "book" form. The book is comprised of nine panels, and is best experienced hanging from the embedded line as an installation or sculptural piece, though it can be read traditionally.

The focal point is a self portrait of me holding a camera superimposed over the Willendorf Venus - the first known human figurine. The references to cooking and needle arts are taken from vintage pamphlets on the subjects. The 'Softer than Silk' text is taken from a catalog, and represents the fact that we are meant to be hard working providers and yet glamourous, sexy, kittens. Dearest mother comes from an old letter found in an antique store - once precious and now discarded. The zipper represents how we, as women, live our lives 'unzipped' without the bodily integrity that men take for granted - from pushing forth new life to that toddler grasping a boob in distress and looking for comfort, we are penetrated, we leak, we are stretched and ripped, our bodies so often not under our control. Finally, the tiny circle cut from the index of a scientific text is a clue to non-traditional pursuits.

The first page of the United States Constitution is used as the backdrop for all the panels. In this year of never ending challenges, from a deadly virus to social unrest to politicians seemingly ready to throw democracy to the curb, “We the People” inspires me and angers me. It is past time that all of us - regardless of gender and skin color - were fully included. We, too, are people.

This panel began with me finding the "scold's bridle" (lower right) in an old book on punishments. Apparently, a sharp tongue was once a punishable crime. I combined this with the witch being hanged while sitting in a chair, and I was off. Marie Curie offers the counterpoint to the story of restrictions, chains, and punishments.

This panel makes reference to the role of women as teacher, particularly of young children, and as the purveyor of culture, elegance, beauty, and gentility. "My Lady Cinderella" is an advertisement from a vintage magazine for a romance novel, written by a woman identified by her status as a wife.

This may be my favorite panel in the piece. That's Isabella of Spain in the lower right, one of the most powerful people of her time. The Rocket Girls were the first 'computers', calculating the trajectories for the early space flights by hand. They were pioneers and ushered in the age of technology we all live in. These women belie any notion of females as weaker vessels. The shape of the clothes pin echoes the shape of a rocket while calling attention to the domestic burden still carried largely by women.

This panel is the most personal as it represents the work I spent my professional life doing - building computer software. Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) was the first computer programmer, working with Charles Babbage on a prototype of a general purpose computing machine. The women in the lower right are also programming a computer - in their case in the analog style with cables and switches.

This panel speaks to our role as caregivers, from herb woman to Florence Nightengale. I found, and used, papers from a 1942 Red Cross Nursing manual, with the hand written notes of the student still stuck in the pages (finding these treasures was a big part of the joy of the project). Rebecca Crumpler (1831-1895) was one of the first female physicians in the United States, and she happened to be black. Rebecca was also the only female physician author in the nineteenth century.

This is actually one of the first panels I completed, speaking to the expectation that above all else, we will be glamorous, stay young, stay thin, and comport ourselves in a duly supportive manner. The old secretarial training manual found in an estate sale made that last point very clearly.

Mother, princess, the bread of life, responsible for keeping our little circle happy - the source of ballads for both our failures and our virtues.

Beloved RGB died while I was working on the last couple of panels. I knew I had to end the piece with her and her own words, her own goal - equal citizenship for both men and women.

Hanging open in my work space. The clothes pins are from Granny Oliver's clothes pin bag - they have been used many times in the actual washing of the family laundry. The buttons are from my mother's stash. She can't see well enough to sew anymore, but she was a master seamstress in her day.