The German artist Marianne Wex earned a degree in Fine Arts and subsequently taught typography for several years at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts (HfbK). Her best-known work, the research project and book Let’s Get Back Our Space – ‘Female’ and ‘Male’ Body Language as a Result of Patriarchal Structures (Frauenliteraturverlag Hemine Fees, 1979), is in fact her final thesis project. For this reason, I thought it appropriate to choose this project as the topic for a talk in the context of the first edition of Ex Libris – Independent Book Fair, which took place at the School’s Expanded Library.
Ensayo 7 is a small fanzine that I produced for the talk. It functions as a six-page publication when folded, and as a poster featuring the cover of Wex’s book when opened.
The Ensayos series was launched in late 2021, coinciding with the start of a wide-ranging research project aimed at redefining—from a feminist and, to the extent possible, decolonial perspective—the canon that historiography has established for the artist’s book genre. The aim of this series is to present partial research findings in a variety of printed formats. While disseminating information and content, the publications in the series experiment with alternative formats to the channels through which academic research is usually disseminated.
Hamburg: self-published, December 2024
Concept, text, photographs: Mela Dávila Freire
Graphic design: Laura Meseguer, Barcelona
B/W photocopy
42 x 27.9 cm (open), 10.5 x 15 cm (closed), poster + 6 pp
Printed at Druckwelten, Hamburg
1st edition: 100 copies.
Text in English
Distributed during the Ex Libris fair (HfbK) and by mail.
