Hester Scheurwater

Coming up next … THE IDEAL WOMAN (more info coming soon)

With a donation from the ‘makersloket’ of “Droom en Daad”, I have researched into how I can make a publication as a statement, a book as a performance, a book in motion. This hybrid book should be a short film, artwork, object and pamphlet at the same time. The result is a series of dummy book printed in limited edition: THE IDEAL WOMAN designed by Studio Renate Boere.

The title 'THE IDEAL WOMAN' refers to the book “De Volmaakte Vrouw’ by gynecologist Dr. Th. Van de Velde from 1933. It is a unique book with film strips, 480 film images in flip form show exercises for the female to promote 'mating'.The form of the book is unique, the title is remarkable and his ideas are not entirely up-to-date. He knew, for example, that women did not understand the art of 'influencing sexual events in a favorable sense through their own activity'. In his book "The Perfect Woman," he prescribed gymnastics to "improve the female's ability to participate properly in mating." For " Woman, much to her detriment, suffers the sexual events passively, she does not understand the art of influencing the events in a favorable sense through her own activity." Van de Velde” saw women, as it was customary in his time, primarily as reproductive beings

From the moment I saw this book, I knew I had to make an answer to his book. Not from the “passive” point of view as he saw it, but from the strength of the woman herself. The filmstrips and photos of this series of dummies “THE IDEAL WOMAN” are POWER POSES of the women who have participated in this project and I see it as a territorial act to reclaim space with their naked performances.

THE IDEAL WOMAN is looking for a PUBLISHER!

Series dummies THE IDEAL WOMAN

Hester Scheurwater

Design Studio Renate Boere

Bound by Boekbinderij Roest

398 pages

Thanks to DROOM EN DAAD