The Corset Work
Pink Corset Book (untitled) © 2000
Cover Corset back side
Cover Corset, vintage corset
Height 15.5”
Width closed 15”/top, 20”/bottom,
Width opened: 36"/middle
Cover Corset detail,
behind inside front laces
Vintage Maternity/Elastic Corset
Height 12”
Width closed: 18“
Width opened: 36”
1940’s Corset
Height: 13”
Width closed: 15 1/2”
Width opened: 30”
Coral Waist Cincher
Height/central part: 11”
Height/side parts: 7 1/2”
Width closed: 11”
Width open: 24”
Antique Wrap-around Doll Corset
Height 4 1/2”
Width closed: 4”
Antique Wrap-around Doll Corset, inside
Height: 4 1/2”
Width open: 36”
If you would like any hi-res images of these photos, or if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me: tamarstone@pipeline.com
Images Copyright © 2006 by Tamar Stone. All Rights Reserved.
No images may be reproduced without the expressed written permission of the artist.
This is my 3rd artist book, and the 1st one in this series of corset books.
After the few books I made in paper, I wanted the stories that I was telling to become more 3-D, not just text on paper but wanting the stories to become part of the textile. By embroidering the text into the fabric, the text is tactile and the viewer could become more intimately involved with the stories being told, as they would have to interact with the book - by untying the corset strings in order to read the text.
Having to take the time to slow down to unlace all the ties, undo the buckles in order read all the text, is part of the contemplation and therapy of the process; echoing what women have been experiencing for
a century of dressing and undressing.
The text from a variety of sources from behavioral manuals of the 19th and 20th centuries, which describe prescriptions of public and private deportment, as well as personal narratives of modern women who have lived with these physical constraints.
