Dead Feminists: Art, Feminism, and History

Dead Feminists basically springs from the idea of "What if we made a book about feminists throughout history and made it REALLY really pretty?"

Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring, one an artist and one a printer & typographer, have assembled 24 essays and beautiful prints of historic feminists, or "historic heroines in living color." It's a damn gorgeous book.

Ooh

They include biographical sketches, prints for each woman, and a breakdown of what historical elements inspired the print. GET EXCITED, ART NERDS. And oh, history nerds, there're quotes and photographs and – knitting nerds, listen up, Elizabeth Zimmerman is in here. 

I know you guys are out there.

Whenever I flip through it, I think about how much I probably would've loved it as a kid. There are so many pictures, and as a 3rd grader who was real real into a padded white book detailing the histories of every president of the United States – but which I only really cared about because it had some pretty great pictures – this would've been right up my alley. And it's all about ladies! A breed I was not even that aware I liked yet, because everything was dudes as far as the eye could see.

LOOK AT THIS.

At a time when I feel we should be more encouraged than ever to look to the past in order to address the problems of the present and the future, Dead Feminists is an excellent start. Get it, read it, love it.