Annette Messager Ma collection de proverbes - mfc-michèle didier

Annette Messager
Ma collection de proverbes
©2012 Annette Messager and mfc-michèle didier
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Annette Messager
Ma collection de proverbes
About Ma collection de proverbes d'Annette Messager
Artist-collector and handywoman, Annette Messager has made nearly sixty “collection
albums” between 1972 and 1974. Inspired by words, writings and images, the artist has
created her albums from an accumulation of texts, photographs, notes and miscellaneous
items, cautiously collected and sorted. Sometimes carefully glued in notebooks, sometimes
gathered in bulk folders, Annette Messager’s albums all have a title, handwritten by the
artist.
The albums are organized according to various themes, such as love life, encounters or
domestic life and resemble sometimes a diary, a photo album or a recipe book. Les hommes
que j’aime, Ma vie illustrée or Mon livre de cuisine are a few examples. Annette Messager
assembles common, everyday items to create a work that is subtly both poetic and feminist.
Although the use of the personal pronoun suggests that the albums are autobiographical,
they are works of fiction. They reveal the ironic fantasy life of a young woman embodying
the archetype of the 60's housewife. This woman is not Annette Messager.
Ma collection de proverbes is one of these collections that Annette Messager has compiled
over a long period of time and that consists of a series of “misogynist” proverbs. The artist
has laboriously embroidered them on pieces of white fabric, revealing them in an incisive
and ironic perspective.
Each set contains the same 13 proverbs and 2 unique proverbs in each set. The 13 proverbs
are:
1. C’est la femme qui a fait pousser les cheveux blancs du diable
2. Quand la fille naît, même les murs pleurent
3. La femme a les jupes longues et l’esprit court
4. Femmes sont trop périlleuses et par nature, dangereuses
5. Que le balai de la mort frappe toutes les femmes sauf ma mère
6. Chez la femme les dents de sagesse ne poussent qu'après la mort
7. Les femmes sont instruites par la nature, les hommes par les livres
8. Langue de femme, couteau a deux tranchants
9. Une femme sans pudeur est comme un plat sans sel
10. Aime ta femme comme ton âme et bats-la comme ta pelisse
11. Tout vient de dieu, sauf la femme
12. La femme a neuf âmes comme le chat
13. Il faut craindre la femme et le tonnerre
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Annette Messager
Ma collection de proverbes
Specifications
• The set contains 15 proverbs embroidered on white natural cotton fabric
• Each proverb measures 28 x 35 cm
• The 15 proverbs come in a wooden slipcase
• The slipcase measures 35 x 42 x 5,5 cm
Production
• Limited edition of 24 numbered and signed copies + 6 A.P.
The 24 sets contain the same 13 proverbs and 2 different proverbs in each set
The 6 A.P. contain the same 13 proverbs and 3 different proverbs in each set
• Price per unit: on request
Produced and published in 2012 by mfc-michèle didier
1974 - 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this edition may be reproduced
in any form or by any means without written permission of the
artist and the publisher.
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