William’s Womb, Helena Wadsley
William’s Womb is a sculpture that references the anatomical illustration made by 19th century American physician William Thompson Lusk. It is made with found pieces of lace and embroidery in red, pink, cream, and gold with added hand embroidery to add anatomical detail. Its overall shape is like the letter ‘T’. Using found lace and embroidery is a way of bringing back to life the labour that anonymous women put into the pieces that end up forgotten in thrift stores.
Title: William’s Womb
Artist: Helena Wadsley
Date: 2024
Medium/Materials: Sewn sculpture from scrap fabrics
Dimensions: 27 cm x 7 cm x 13 cm
Form/Genre: Fibre sculpture
Key Terms/Subject/Tags: Uterus; Anatomy; Gender; Reproductive system
Artist Statement:
From the moment we are born, women have been conditioned for motherhood. It remains a common question to ask, never if, but when you will have children. While it seemed to be a woman’s most important task in life, to give birth, the female reproductive system has been inadequately studied, many female-related ailments have been dismissed, while others, such as hysteria, for example, have been invented.
Forceps were invented in the early 17th century by two French Huguenot doctors who made a business out of childbirth, keeping the tool a secret so they could monopolize childbirth where intervention was necessary. A basiotribe, a 19th-century invention, was a tool for removing a dead fetus--a violently intrusive tool used on a woman already suffering. William’s Womb references anatomical drawings of the female reproductive system; they are constructed using scrap fabrics, including lace and embroidery, as a way of acknowledging both types of women’s underacknowledged labour. While mother and infant mortality rates were frighteningly high until fairly recently, and we do have medicine to thank for that, when childbirth entered the realm of medicine, and pregnancy came to be considered an illness, compared to the millennia of midwifery using shared knowledge and compassion, a woman in labour lost agency and a sense of comfort. This piece represents the adaptability of women finding that comfort despite the cold, impersonal tools and care they might be subjected to.
Cultural Context / Story Behind the Work:
This is part of Wadsley’s ongoing series about labour.
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, Facebook, Bluesky: @helenawadsley