Five erasures from Fascinating Womanhood

1 Minute Read Time

A painting of various women wearing a collection of different medieval headdresses. — Photo by British Library on Unsplash

Source text: Fascinating Womanhood by Helen Andelin, originally self-published in 1963. These erasures were composed upon pages of the mass-market paperback, published by Random House, 1982.

Erasure of text page with some text grayed out by pencil, a background of light orange, and a lacy white design in the bottom right. The remaining text reads, "desire is the white light passing through marble almost like lace it is grief stirred to genius For lo the stars fell weeping and the rain more than water in a sieve and O beauty we may well ask ourselves If there is a heaven holding up the birds

Erasure of text with some words grayed out by pencil and a light orange background. A red arrow indicates where the reader should start. Two images of swirling galaxies lie behind some of the words. The text reads, "O spill of bright pins upon spreading Velvet o tears of polished Steel o patient face forever washing itself O magnetic ache roiling between the stars"

Erasure of text with some words grayed out by pencil and a light orange background at the top and a black and white image of a horse in a field with a house and trees behind him. A red arrow indicates where the reader should start. The text reads, "devotion cannot comprehend itself, can in fact, only thirst. Do you feel that sublime sting? listen:"

Erasure of text with some words grayed out by pencil and a light orange background. A red arrow indicates where the reader should start. A picture of a hand and a red block with a capital and lowercase "A" lie behind some of the words. The text reads, "Curiosity is a single secret apple growing on the wrong tree. The fruit itself forever out of reach. The mind an apple forever invisible to itself."

Erasure of text with some words crossed out by red pencil and a light orange background. A black arrow indicates where the reader should start. A grayscale picture of an eye surrounded by scroll work and a rectangle filled with scrollwork lie behind some of the words. The text reads, "There is no turning back. Once you take it upon yourself to look, once that new color finds you, your eye will never again be unable to see it. Never again be without that specific heat."

Lisa Huffaker

creates poetry, collage, and assemblage. Her poetry appears in 32 Poems, diode poetry journal, DIAGRAM, CTRL + V, Tupelo Quarterly, and Phoebe. She was recently a finalist for Dallas Poet Laureate. Her erasure transformation of a 1963 marriage manual was featured at Delft University of Technology and Cornell Tech’s 3rd Workshop on Obfuscation. lisahuffaker.com

Return to top of page

Search