ASAP/Review

"The enduring presence of the image of the Virgin Mary in art about abortion illuminates a crisis in representation." Read: asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social

“Comstock’s network made regular headlines as they hounded those who aided and abetted bodily autonomy seekers. These laws limited discussions pertaining to bodily autonomy, which became tenuous at best and litigious at worst..." Read: asapjournal.com/node/aiding-... @asapjournal.bsky.social

From the Gaps / Con/textual Representations / Stand and Deliver! Experiencing Epitaphs of Roman Midwives in Funerary Contexts - ASAP/Review In Ancient Rome, male doctors were summoned during childbirth only if labor proved difficult. Instead, it was midwives who played the literal and figurative role of a physical and emotional support in...

“In Ancient Rome, male doctors were summoned during childbirth only if labor proved difficult. Instead, it was midwives who played the literal and figurative role of a physical and emotional support in childbirth...” Read: asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social

"...alongside Milton’s descriptors, led me to ask questions about the biological function of the human uterus. And in that process, I discovered striking similarities between Milton’s warring chaos and a uterus during pregnancy." Read: asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social

“By staging the abortion as a crime scene scattered with the abortionist’s dubious tools & techniques, [the work] also functions as a grotesquely ruinous parody of the artist’s studio—& thus positions Kienholz as the abortionist.” Read: asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social

Paula Rego is often called a remarkable storyteller as her work is deeply ingrained with narrative—sometimes personal, entangled with family & childhood memories, individual politics, experiences, feelings & emotions” Read: asapjournal.com/node/embodim... @asapjournal.bsky.social @jmss3.bsky.social

“Sontag’s description of the fascist seduction as a process of “purification” that transformed “sexual energy into ‘spiritual force’ for the benefit of the community” aligns with the self-described pro-life movement in America.” Read here: asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social

“In light of these...attacks on abortion access concomitant w greater restrictions on women’s rights to make choices about their bodies, this cluster takes up the politics surrounding abortion as it threads through art & activism." asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social

“But Munch’s selection of impression for the Armory show suggests that the work could also be topical, implicated and even intervening—or not—in debates over abortion, contraception, & women’s rights in Europe and the U.S." Read here: asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social

From the Gaps / Con/textual Representations / Our Lady or Yours? The Image of the Virgin Mary in Abortion Activism - ASAP/Review The enduring presence of the image of the Virgin Mary in art about abortion illuminates a crisis in representation. On the one hand, visual depictions of Mary in anti-abortion prayers, posters, and ca...

New from @asapjournal.bsky.social and Maryanne Saunders asapjournal.com/node/from-th...

Three years in the making, this cluster is out in the world!

it's when you go to the optometrist and get an updated prescription

From the Gaps / Responses / What the Women Knew - ASAP/Review What can paint and marble tell us that trips to the archives might not? As a historian, I was prompted to ask questions such as this while reading these essays exploring representations of abortion in art…

"Taken together," this cluster "suggest[s] that artistic representation can reveal what is often hidden. In the case of abortion—often illegal, often shameful, at times known more through whisper networks than official archives—so much is concealed."

asapjournal.com/node/from-th...

From the Gaps / Political Representations / The Aesthetics of Reproductive Justice: Finding Hope in Feminist Mini Golf - ASAP/Review I have been thinking a lot lately about what reproductive justice looks like, especially in this moment. I mean this question quite literally. What would our resistance look like if we thought more about aesthetics? What…

"What would our resistance look like if we thought more about aesthetics? What new kinds of resistance might emerge if aesthetics were central to our conceptualization of reproductive resistance?"

asapjournal.com/node/from-th...

From the Gaps / Political Representations / House Mothers, Godmothers, and Othermothers in Beyoncé’s Renaissance - ASAP/Review In October 2024, Beyoncé joined presidential nominee Kamala Harris at a rally in Texas to voice her support for reproductive freedom. In her brief remarks, Beyoncé asserted that she was participating neither as a celebrity nor…

"Beyoncé’s version of motherhood—one that draws from cultural history while responding to the present and looking toward the future—represents a version that is deeply needed during this time of great reproductive restriction..."

asapjournal.com/node/house-m...

From the Gaps / Political Representations / "Her Beloved, Which Was Not Beloved": Contextualizing Beloved and Memory Politics in a Post-Roe v. Wade America - ASAP/Review “How had those years dealt with her slave sister, the little playmate of her childhood? She, also, was very beautiful; but the flowers and sunshine of love were not for her. She drank the cup of…

"There is, unfortunately, an unironic similarity to Happy the Elephant’s quest for freedom and the continued fight for bodily and reproductive autonomy of human beings..."

asapjournal.com/node/her-bel...

From the Gaps / Political Representations / Hiding in Plain Sight: The Plant Language of Abortifacients - ASAP/Review In Audre Lorde’s famous construction, the master’s house must be dismantled by a different form of signifying. Those without access to power—to master discourse, whether because of race, gender, sexuality, economic status, nationality, religion, or other…

"Those without access to power—to master discourse, whether because of race, gender, sexuality, economic status, nationality, religion, or other forms of identity that those with power seek to exclude—use code."

asapjournal.com/node/from-th...

From the Gaps / Political Representations / Samuel Alito’s Witch Hunt, Lydia Nobles’s Pleasure Trophies - ASAP/Review It is hard to describe abortion as a form of sexual freedom. Writing of art and abortion in 2009, when abortion was still legal across the country, Jennifer Doyle expressed this difficulty with eloquence. Abortion stories…

"It is hard to describe abortion as a form of sexual freedom. Writing of art and abortion in 2009, when abortion was still legal across the country, Jennifer Doyle expressed this difficulty with eloquence..."

asapjournal.com/node/from-th...

From the Gaps / Con/textual Representations / Our Lady or Yours? The Image of the Virgin Mary in Abortion Activism - ASAP/Review The enduring presence of the image of the Virgin Mary in art about abortion illuminates a crisis in representation. On the one hand, visual depictions of Mary in anti-abortion prayers, posters, and campaign images imply she…

"The enduring presence of the image of the Virgin Mary in art about abortion illuminates a crisis in representation."

asapjournal.com/node/from-th...

From the Gaps / Con/textual Representations / Aiding and Abetting via Emetics, Emmenagogues, and Abortifacients in The Country of the Pointed Firs While Evading Surveillance in the Comstock Era - ASAP/Review In 1896, American author Sarah Orne Jewett (1849–1904) published what would become her most popular work. The text that became The Country of the Pointed Firs was initially published as short sketches in four serialized installments…

"Comstock’s network made regular headlines as they hounded those who aided and abetted bodily autonomy seekers. These laws limited discussions pertaining to bodily autonomy, which became tenuous at best and litigious at worst; predictably, conversation disappeared."

asapjournal.com/node/aiding-...

From the Gaps / Con/textual Representations / A Meditation on Chaos: Literary, Scientific, Political - ASAP/Review Pregnant with twins in 2016, I underwent an emergency cesarean due to preeclampsia, a procedure and diagnosis I was underprepared for and did not wholly understand, even as it was happening. At 33 weeks and 4…

"...alongside Milton’s descriptors, led me to ask questions about the biological function of the human uterus. And in that process, I discovered striking similarities between Milton’s warring chaos and a uterus during pregnancy."

asapjournal.com/node/from-th...

From the Gaps / Con/textual Representations / Stand and Deliver! Experiencing Epitaphs of Roman Midwives in Funerary Contexts - ASAP/Review In Ancient Rome, male doctors were summoned during childbirth only if labor proved difficult. Instead, it was midwives who played the literal and figurative role of a physical and emotional support in childbirth—a support captured in…

"In Ancient Rome, male doctors were summoned during childbirth only if labor proved difficult. Instead, it was midwives who played the literal and figurative role of a physical and emotional support in childbirth..."

asapjournal.com/node/from-th...

From the Gaps / Aesthetic Representations / Embodiment, power, and political engagement: the case of Paula Rego’s Abortion Series - ASAP/Review Portuguese painter Paula Rego (1935–2022) is often called a remarkable storyteller, as her work is deeply ingrained with narrative. Her stories are sometimes personal, entangled with family and childhood memories, individual politics, experiences, feelings, and emotions. But…

"Portuguese painter Paula Rego is often called a remarkable storyteller, as her work is deeply ingrained with narrative. Her stories are sometimes personal, entangled with family and childhood memories, individual politics, experiences, feelings, and emotions."

asapjournal.com/node/embodim...

From the Gaps / Aesthetic Representations / Artist as Abortionist: Ed Kienholz’s The Illegal Operation (1962) and the Limits of Representation - ASAP/Review Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, access to reproductive care in the United States is under severe threat, with procedures once considered routine now illicit in many parts of the country. Equally disturbing is the…

"Equally disturbing is the threat of censorship, not just regarding abortion, but also pregnancy, miscarriage, and contraception, subjects typically seen as common knowledge but are increasingly suppressed, forbidden, and in extreme cases, criminalized."

asapjournal.com/node/from-th...

From the Gaps / Aesthetic Representations / Fascinating Fetalism: of Man and Fetus - ASAP/Review In 1972, Susan Sontag identified the seduction of “fascinating fascism” in American culture. Here, I look to the allure of the image of the fetus as fascinating fetalism. While “fetalism” is a medical term describing the…

"Sontag’s description of the fascist seduction as a process of “purification” that transformed “sexual energy into ‘spiritual force’ for the benefit of the community” aligns with the values of the self-described pro-life movement in America."

asapjournal.com/node/from-th...

From the Gaps / Aesthetic Representations / Edvard Munch and “The Great Cause”: Abortion, Eugenics, Whiteness - ASAP/Review Madonna (1895/1902), one of Edvard Munch’s most famous and heavily reproduced works, depicts a nude woman surrounded by a distinctive red border with spermatozoa and a worried looking infant or fetus in the lower lefthand corner…

"But Munch’s selection of impression for the Armory show suggests that the work could also be highly topical, implicated and even intervening – or not – in debates over abortion, contraception, and women’s rights in Europe and the U.S. around 1900 and beyond."

asapjournal.com/node/from-th...

From the Gaps: Art, Literature, and Abortion: Introduction - ASAP/Review On May 2, 2022, a draft decision leaked from the US Supreme Court confirmed what many had feared: that the highest U.S. court was set to overturn the 1973 decision Roe v. Wade and roll back…

"In light of these unprecedented attacks on abortion access concomitant w greater restrictions on women’s rights to make choices about their bodies, this cluster takes up the politics surrounding the history of abortion as it threads through art practice & activism."

asapjournal.com/node/from-th...

//a very special february cluster//

FROM THE GAPS:
ART, LITERATURE, & ABORTION

out now!!!

Eds. Leila Easa & Jennifer Stager

&&Feat.
A Morehead
E Legge
J Gosse
M Oliveira
A Graham
L Perry
J M Nader
M Saunders
C Schopp
B Wright
S Cannon
C Thomsen
M Fissell

asapjournal.com/cluster/from...

On Extractive Aesthetics: The Rising Dragon (2025) and the Terraforming of Tibet - ASAP/Review The explosive sparks and fiery arcs that flared across the Himalayan range for Cai Guo-Qiang’s site-specific artwork The Rising Dragon quickly drew the ire of environmentalists. Staged in September 20...

Out now! Read Tianren Luo's essay on Cai Guo-Qiang's *The Rising Dragon* (2025) and the project's "entanglements in the longue durée of extractivism under the settler-colonial regime in Tibet."

asapjournal.com/feature/on-e...

Hopkins Press Top 20 Most-Read Journal Articles January 2026 www.press.jhu.edu/newsroom Illustrated with a "newsrack" style collage of the journal covers included in this month's Top 20

Your 20 most-read Hopkins Press journal articles in January ask big questions: What are human rights? What is cancer? Why feminist bioethics? These questions, and much more, await you at the Newsroom Blog!

Peruse the pieces you read most last month now: www.press.jhu.edu/ne...