Everything Under The Sun: Stories Of Sexual Assault

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Stories Of Sexual Assault

A sign about the book project.

Telling your personal story is becoming something of an imperative. If you've been in a bookstore or seen the books section on Amazon, you've probably noted the number of memoirs being published over the last decade. Maybe there is something of benefit to telling one's story. That's the premise, also behind a project developed by artist and bookmaker, Mirabelle Jones.

Working in an area in which survivors feel some mark of stigma and disapproval, Ms. Jones is giving voice to survivors of sexual assault by including their stories in handmade and artistic books. The project started in 2013, with the first of the books, JARRING. This year JARRING III is being completed.

As with the previous editions, the goals are to promote awareness and dialogue about sexual assault at the community level; give voices to the experience of sexual assault in the stories of survivors; create a public archive that can be utilized by researchers and those recovering from sexual assault; and raise money for the work of rape crisis centers around the country, along with providing resources for survivors. Funding for these projects comes from donations and book sales.

Mirabelle explained how she was drawn to this project, "My own assault, which occurred in my first year of graduate school, was a pivotal event in my development as an artist and as a human being. By connecting with other survivors, I realized that this experience was a larger societal issue that needed to be explored and discussed, that supporting a community of silence was allowing rape culture to persist, and that my skills as an artist and a bookmaker could be employed to break the walls of silence shrouding this issue."

As happened after the creation of the previous editions, copies were sold to library special collections, to allow them to be accessed by the public, and copies have been given to rape crisis centers to use therapeutically. In addition, Mirabelle tours around the country promoting dialogue on this issue.

The three Jarring volumes.

Since there are now three volumes to this collection, it is possible to break down the books into their style types. Book I was done in an accordion style, utilizing different type faces for each survivor's voice. If you look at the beginning page, it represents a jar filled with the survivors' stories as you go along through the book. Book II is done in a flag style, representing layers of voices accumulating and passing over and through each other. Book III is in the style of a codex book. The pages have rough edges and are made from a combination of raw silk and blue glass inclusions. It is hand bound with blue wax thread.