Layers of the Body

Abstract

This practice-led project explores how publication design can be used to reclaim the body and overcome physical trauma through the lens of a young female who has suffered from endometriosis. The designed publication uses a collage approach to image making and textual composition to recontextualise misconceptions and visual representations around the female body. Using the concept of the book as a body, the publication uses typography and collaged imagery to communicate an internal and an external dialogue between three voices – the feminist, the personal, and the medical – as means to reclaim the body.

The publication presents information through the perspective of self-identity and the varying layers of perception that transverse through the work. Using autoethnography as a methodological framework, the project explores a series of methods, such as journalling, drawing and collage, and prototyping to access and explore a personal experience.