Today’s the first of three images from my emerging work Transferrable Property, an evolving project that examines the traditional expectations of weddings (in particular) and marriage (in general) and the way these societal suppositions fall harder on women.

My written source material comes from wedding etiquette books that were published between 1924 And 1982. The books almost uniformly referred to unmarried women as “girls;” the language shifted to “brides” after marriage. There are an uncountable number of rules for women (because I am not going to say “girls”) to follow but a trifling number for men (who, by the way, are never referred to as “boys”) to abide by.

The visual source materials are found photos from rural Texas, mostly made during the 1980s. I purchased the negatives when a photography studio went out of business during the pandemic.
The resulting project consists of digitally manipulated images overlaid with quotes from the written materials. The quotes were selected because I found them hilarious or infuriating. Or both. A lot of them were both.

The project asks viewers to share my eyerolling at the archaic words; my outrage at how microaggressions sneak in and become normal; and my frustration at all of it.

(Included in the group show Women’s Work that opens Friday July 3 at the Positive Space Gallery in Tulsa, Oklahoma.)

from the Transferrable Property series
vintage photo, scanned and edited