Birth Work, Darian Goldin Stahl
This is a set of five books held in a case-style book box. The books are bound in white cloth with a dense array of children's stickers and band aid outlines printed in a solid color. The band aids are printed vertically all along the bottom of each book. Each of the five books has a different color of sticker and band aid outlines: yellow, green, blue, pink, and purple. The box has each color of outlines printed over top of one another. The books open in an accordion format. The solid colors of stickers and band aids carry over the back of each page of the book. On the front of the pages, text is written across the entirety of all of the pages, except for the middle spreads. Here, dense object-based collages of things like fertility testing strips, needles, a baby doll, and scientific equipment are photographically printed.
Title: Birth Work
Artist: Darian Goldin Stahl
Date: 2025
Medium/Materials: Collagraph and ink transfer
Dimensions: 5 sets, 27 cm x 17 cm each, 26.67 cm x 16.51 cm total
Form/Genre: Artist book, print
Key Terms/Subject/Tags: Cancer; Disability; Patient narrative; Medical research
Artist Statement:
Birth Work is a box set of five artist books that bind together personal and professional voices on complex journeys to motherhood in the 21st century. Each book transcribes an interview with a patient, birth worker, or medical researcher. Together, Birth Work interweaves seldom-shared stories of illness, fertility, science, birth, and advocacy.
From a woman navigating infertility with multiple sclerosis, to another confronting the emotional weight of IVF and genetic risk, these voices speak to the persistence of hope in the face of bodily uncertainty. A doula and a First Nations Birth Worker both reveal the systemic harm and healing embedded in how we birth. One emphasizes perinatal education and support, and the other centers the urgent need for culturally safe, wraparound care. Finally, two biologists preserving ovarian tissue for children after cancer treatment expand our understanding of fertility as a future-focused lens on choice and potential.
Collagraph plates of stickers and band-aids adorn the front and back of each page, cover, and book box. The band-aids may connote an idyllic picket fence, c-section scar, gesture of care, or a quick fix. In the center spread, a collaborative collage of each interviewee’s “birth work” objects interrupts the text, requiring the reader to rock the pages back and forth to follow the narrative. Made tangible within the intimacy of handmade books, this series honours the complexity of becoming a mother today, however one chooses to do so.
Cultural Context / Story Behind the Work:
Created in collaboration with the women in Goldin Stahl’s life who pursue motherhood in the midst of disability and illness (comprising the interviewees).
Rights for this Image:
This digital image is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. You are free to share it for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit the artist.
Learn More:
Instagram: @dariangoldin