Zora Neale Hurston (American, 1891\u20131960)<\/p>\n
1 v. (unpaged): col. Ill.<\/p>\n
15 3\/8 in. (39 cm)<\/p>\n
Courtesy the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library. \u00a9 Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California. Artist book excerpt published under fair use..<\/p>\n
Betye Saar is best known for her assemblages, often bringing together found objects that resonate with history, memory, and identity. These techniques have also been applied to her collage making, such as the silk-screened collages that correspond with short stories by author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. The short stories that Betye Saar selected to illustrate often incorporate women\u2019s experiences and their relationships to men. In the collage Now You Cookin\u2019 With Gas, <\/em>(right) Saar illustrates the last story in the book and depicts the encounter on the streets of Harlem. Two slick-talking, zoot-suited men are attempting to attract the attention of a young woman. Saar\u2019s choice to position the woman just outside the frame of the collage asserts the woman\u2019s self-possession and independence as she boldly rejects the men\u2019s advances.<\/p>\n See artist book excerpt, the short story “Magnolia Flower,” below:<\/p>\n