Planned Parenthood doesn’t just offer one healthcare service to all who walk through their doors, nor does it offer just one birth control method to their patients. THERE ARE SO MANY OPTIONS! So, I couldn’t just do one artwork. &, luckily, I’m a letterpress printer—so was able to create four editions large enough to be given to many locations across Texas (&, if you visit a Planned Parenthood, you might see one or even be able to take one home with you)! Photographs never do justice for how beautiful these prints are in-person: the layers of bright neon ink, metallic or cotton papers reflecting in the light, the impression of the type / vintage plates, & more.
Just to give some background on letterpress printing: you like wine & prints & texting & ink? If YES to any of these, chances are you might also love letterpress & how it got started (plus here’s one reason why I’m so passionate about this process & picked this medium for the PPGT prints)! In the mid-15th century, Johannes Gutenberg realized books were only able to be purchased by the very rich, as each individual page had to be carved by hand on blocks of wood. So, he invented a few things: a “screw press” modeled after wine presses, a lacquer-like ink he created himself out of soot+walnut oil+turpentine, & (most importantly) moveable type. This meant that the letters could be set & distributed & re-set an infinite number of times. Gutenberg’s press is considered to be the first instance of mass communication, after which letterpress printing became the primary method of printing & distributing information. &, THIS IS HUGE & AWESOME: this monumental achievement was instrumental in allowing EVERYONE access to the printed word, thus encouraging the spread of information & ideas. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 it was the biggest revolution in print technology, allowing manuscripts to be mass-produced at relatively low costs. &, it’s the reason you know how to read, how newspapers & political events & scientific information gets in your hands, made education possible for everyone, & so much more.
I’ve done a lot of artwork, writing, & research on the female body; reproductive health is one area that I’ve been exploring for almost two decades. Also, especially inspired by art collaborations with writer Katrina Prow (@kat_parade), as I’ve made letterpress broadsides of her poem “Sit Pretty” (a poem about visiting the gynecologist), & while invited to be part of an international group of artists in a series of exhibitions called PATENT PENDING—curated by Jonathan Whitfill (@jonwhitfill)—a friend who rescued thousands of patent books from destruction, giving one to each participating artist, I made large-scale photographic works to her writings about IUDs, HPV, breast cancer, & bras. Here’s one:
“#3077879: Contraceptive Intra-Uterine Appliance - February 19, 1963
The doctor asks if I trust my lover, and I think, trust is the wrong word. He is the floor beneath my bed each morning, planks of imitation eddies that sink with the promise of feet but still hold. I think, this isn’t about my lover really, it’s about quiet, about plugs and shapes that fit like buttons in sweater holes. This is a selfish thing, what I want without my lover, we are wire twisting, semi-precious in loops and loops, we circle yet never meet before one touch. The doctor waits for answers, my legs wide and screaming around his white coat, I think, look inside and tell me: is it trust, does a tunnel lead to simply one end? Put a tree of copper in and read the leaves like tarot. I was small and chalk-colored between my mother’s legs once, my father couldn’t spell the word if he tried, loops and loops of the letter T not crossed. Do you think this is about pattern, my lover works in oil fields everyday, hands slick but gummy at the tips, the rig gyrating spirals of in and out. The doctor’s hands are thirsty, before the quiet of a great exhale, I feel everything, a sharp pinch of settling and then a hard swallow into the empty of my gut.”
— Katrina Prow, @kat_parade
Talking to many friends (women, men, nonbinary, ALL) about birth control methods & why they use them, has really opened my eyes: it’s not just about conception, but plans changing, identities shifting, & more. I’ve taken the pill on & off for years, first getting on it at about 14 (not for preventing pregnancy at first, but to better manage the horrific side-effects that came with my periods) & I’m in my thirties now & have explored/used other options as well. I didn’t grow up in Texas, so had clear sex education classes, but—of no fault of their own—others don’t, so misinformation is out there (one friend told me that she was confused when asking for rubbers that they gave her condoms, because she really thought that “rubbers” meant rubberbands). However, PLANNED PARENTHOOD CAN GUIDE YOU TO MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE IN BIRTH CONTROL & HEALTHCARE FOR YOUR BODY. Some people I know have traveled hours & hours (prior to Planned Parenthood finally opening in Lubbock again recently) while we were in graduate school to get an IUD. Others have periods, but they don’t identify with being a woman, so they use birth control to manage that. Many use a form of birth control, like I did when I first started, to lessen the pain & health issues that can arise from periods. Breastfeeding is also a method of birth control, which I didn’t know until talking with my friends who are young mothers (& learning about that method & other alternatives—& their percentage of effectiveness—from Planned Parenthood too). Some use birth control until they’re ready to start a family; others, never want kids. Neither is wrong. Planned Parenthood (& I hope coming across in these prints) is a place where you can learn about birth control options, so you can make your future, plans, dreams, achievements, & more possible.
This is to all to say, that it’s all about spreading the message to as many people as possible, & I hope my letterpress prints help in achieving that goal: you have options, can trust Planned Parenthood, & they can help you to pursue your dreams. I love Planned Parenthood, have gone there myself (& taken friends), & will always support their mission. Affordable healthcare, with or without insurance, that can be not only life-changing, but often life-saving.
You are important. Your goals matter. &, you can rely on Planned Parenthood to get you were you want to be. Remember too that plans change, & that’s okay. PPGT will be there for you every step of the way. ✨
