Book mystery involving surrealist art and attempted murderers of Andy Warhol

January 1, 2008 11:21 AM

I remember everything about this book except the title and author---cover, quotes, illustrations, approximate size & shape. You love a challenge, and you love being right. All ideas welcome.

I found it on a relative's shelf when I was in high school: she had bought it for a women's studies course at the University of Michigan in the mid to late eighties.

Cover: a drawing of a (white) woman, light brown hair, face seen either in profile or turned to show only the edge of her brow and cheek, arms down and slightly back, huge butterfly wings in hues of blue and purple sprouting from her shoulders and filling 1/2 to 3/4 of the drawing, framed in the same black that colored the spine and back cover of the book. White title above the drawing and on spine, white descriptive information on back.

Size: square or close to it, probably 9x9 or 9x7, shorter side being the vertical.

Quotes: all quotes were set in the upper corners of pages (left in lefthand pages, right in righthand pages) with the main text of the book coming below, leaving a small rectangle of white space on each page that contained a quote.

Valerie Solanas' S.C.U.M. Manifesto was quoted at least twice, possibly three times, and I'm almost positive they misspelled her name as Valerie Solanis. One of the quotes was from her infamous "Men are walking abortions, aborted at the gene stage" routine. I don't believe the rest of the book necessarily gave full support to the argument, but it did present her in a positive light or at least seemed to admire her enthusiasm.

Illustrations: the book included at least two each from artists Remedios Varo and Leonor Fini. I can specifically remember Fini's The Ends of the Earth being used. I'm 90% sure Varo's To Be Reborn was used. All inside illustrations were grayscale.

That's all I've got. Anyone?

posted by ibeji to media & arts (4 comments total)

I think it's the female eunuch by germaine greer
posted by parmanparman at 11:52 AM on January 1, 2008

Nope, not the one, but I do think they quote her too, so it must have been published after 1970. It definitely felt more 80s than 70s feminism, a round up of the edgier aspects Second Wave feminism, a retrospective feel to it, but definitely written before the Third Wave of the 90s. Also much longer than The Female Eunuch, probably 300-400 large format pages. Meant to be a college textbook, I'm sure.
posted by ibeji at 12:15 PM on January 1, 2008

Well, I say edgy, but I could just be remembering the good parts. Obviously the whole woman-as-emerging-butterfly image is anything but edgy, and a far cry from this :-)
posted by ibeji at 12:19 PM on January 1, 2008

Hey, that's the same edition of Female Eunuch I've got! And I'm a big fan of the S.C.U.M. Manifesto (not that I'm volunteering for being cut up); I'll be curious to see what this book turns out to be.
posted by languagehat at 12:28 PM on January 1, 2008