Secretive Family Albums

In honor of International Women's Day, on March 8, I have chosen four artists' books created by women who deal with the family album as a Pandora's box, inviting the viewer for a close and intimate investigation.
In Fear of the Void, Dana Yoeli tells a story about her grandmother, Aggie. The book in pocket format is edited in two parallel planes: Aggie's on the right side, and on the left, photographs of a clay sculpture created by Yoeli, which is being dismantled by water dripping from a fountain. The book contains images of Aggie from the family album, and photographs of her works, some of which are pasted by hand into the 70-copy edition.
In Table, Galia Gur-Ze'ev has created a box of postcards based on an installation of the same name from 1997. Each postcard features a top shot of a figure sitting at an invisible table. The viewer has to complete the family ties in his/her imagination, adding emotional weight to the leafing process.
Nurit Yordan, author of Family Meal, finds herself between her mother's recipe book, photographs from the family album, her photographs of friends and feminist books. With careful editing, she turns the album into a narrative collage, overflowing with tensions between family and sexuality, trust and suspicion, violence and nourishment.

27.02.2025