Pandora's Book

index

Pandora's Book
by Angela Lorenz

Edition of 15 copies	8.8"x5.4"x8.2" box, 24.4"x7.8" opened page	Bologna, Italy 1992
To the text
Pandora's Book is a work composed of five illustrated folding panels and a poem. The text is based on information from history and mythology concerning prototypes of women responsible for propagating evil in the world. This work was originally inspired by images of the snake in the garden of Eden in the Sistine Chapel and elsewhere, with the torso of a woman. It seemed curious to me that not only was Eve responsible for the downfall of "man" but the apple was offered by yet another female figure. Lilith, known under a variety of names and forms from Sumerian days onward, came well before her. And it is probably Lilith wrapped around the tree in Eden offering the apple, as she was supposedly created at the same time as Adam but refused to obey him and led an independent existence creating mostly monster-children from stolen semen. With research, I discovered that the number of negatively-depicted women was enormous, and thus I have limited my representations to a select few for the time being. Although the choice of subjects may seem lopsided in that they come mostly from Western culture, there is a reason for it. The figures from Japan, India, Africa, the Americas and Hawaii that I researched had dual natures and multi-personalities, with positive as well as negative aspects. Both respected and feared in a cyclical vision of life and death, the non-Western mythological female figures do not seem entirely evil, and to represent them solely as evil would not be true to their more complex natures. The Western figures found in Classical and Biblical sources are largely good or evil, reflecting a linear vision of life followed by death, with perhaps heaven but no afterlife. They seem, however, to be modeled on earlier archetypes which were cyclical and not wholly evil. Pandora was familiar to me from childhood as the Greek woman who opened the box, letting evil into the world. So it seemed appropriate that Pandora's box be the idea behind the project, which led me to the concept of the sewing basket. It is ironic that a female figure let evil out of a box, yet her descendents have been confined to it. Representations of and restrictions on women limited their choices at times, but with limitations people often become even more resourceful. With that idea in mind, I restricted myself to the materials available in a woman's workbox. Some women, from ancient Greece onward, were able to sculpt in marble and paint with oils, but most were not. They were largely restricted to their homes and to the so-called "minor arts," which were executed alone or with groups of women in seminaries and community gatherings. Within the confines of their sewing boxes they composed embroidered rhymes and imaginative designs that endure. Silkscreened on cotton cloth in Century Schoolhouse at Edizioni Grafiche Il Navile and cut by the artist with pinking shears.


*TEXT*

Pandora, I thought, was first of those Blasphemous women creating men's woes. But women in kind, from the first day of war, Were contrived and controlled to serve evermore. When women offered a hand to lend She was often sent to sew and mend. Inside her basket, safe and sane, She avoided chastisement of public reign. Though caught in a cage as the butterfly-witch, Her touch metamorphosed life with a stitch. When a woman might have wanted to turn to stone, she turned to cloth and paper alone. Marble and canvas were not for her, As they caused snakey locks to stir. But sisters not bound by needle and thread Even suffered attacks after they were dead. Ardat Lili or Lilitû, Wicked servant of Lilû, Also known as Lamashtû, Lilith all are names for you. From Sumerian walls to Adam's lair Your wings and claws plagued children there. And following in Scylla's lead You multiplied monsters from stolen seed. For all about Eve that's ever been said, Eve was better behaved in bed. Lilith refused to lay beneath, And offered the apple for Eve's sweet teeth. Eve was burdened like all the others For begetting more heathen sister-mothers. Women impure in church could not pray From post-partum for sixty-six days. After a boy, thirty days only, As boys were cleaner, and therefore, less homely. The shears of death cut life's length, Delilah's ploys took Samson's strength, Ragana stole the wool of sheep: Sharp scissors for their souls to keep. Spinning, weaving and cutting life, The Fates chose fortune or patterned strife. Turning a wheel of intricate thread, These three women inspired dread. Beware of beauty, beware of song, A woman's voice will lead you wrong. Mirrors and combs were common possessions For evil women with deadly obsessions. Salomé of beaded chest Wrought St. John's eternal rest, Not of her own but her mother's request, Proving a mother does not know best. Courageous triumphs in peace and war Could not overcome the title "Queen Whore". The final ruler for the scarab beetle Left only a monumental needle. Born of a dancer and trainer of bears, Theodora was empress of foreign affairs. But as any iron woman behind a ruling mate, She was an ill-painted harlot manipulating fate. Her splendor lives on in Ravenna's mosaic, Though Latin descriptions are less than prosaic. A yellow hanky or a little bell Procured a woman's passage to Hell. A short Roman tunic or a red beret signaled those working night and day. Saturday spies brought Melusine's demise. Under every skirt a serpent lies. A woman is only a snake in disguise, To be discovered by voyeurs' eyes. Curing with plants was a telltale sign To condemn a witch with wicked designs. An unschooled healer risked surefire of riding a mule to the funeral pyre. A woman's weakness was purely innate: A crooked rib did form her fate, So unnaturally bent away from man That Satan woos her to his clan. The voracious mouth, the bird of prey, Feasts on marrow and flies away. Unsatiable woman the wanton beast Chooses her victims for Sabba's feast. St. Joan's threads were blasphemy pure, A sin she did not long endure. Delusional in ecclesiastic vision, Bearing arms not children led to prison. For women of letters in the second sex, Adultery hung upon their necks. Out of the home when the worst occurred, The woman no longer had her word. Autonomous women fell out of line. Both nuns and teachers paid a fine. Turning boys into girls and girls into men, Spinster teachers suffered by pen. The old maid can't win once the game has started. She's the last to be picked and the first discarded. An unmarried woman with her knitting bag Is the modern version of the ancient "old hag". Delusional women, weak yet conniving, Seeking pleasure or power-striving, Deceitful with beauty, deadly with age, For this her counterpart fashioned a cage. The box is closing and she is in it. Will we escape it or will we climb in it? Creativity reigns within these limits, But is the tale ending or do we begin it?