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Flemish
Book of Hours
Opaque watercolor on vellum with brown leather binding, 15th century
Gift of Mrs. Norah McCarter Warbeke
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, Massachusetts
Photograph Laura Shea
1964.7.L.PI
 
During the late Middle Ages, Books of Hours were the most popular private devotional works in France and England. Elaborately illuminated, these books were often created specifically for an individual. This image displays King David, guilty of adultery and asking God for forgiveness. An angel confronts David, evoking the words of the Psalm found on the following page. These illuminations interact with the text and serve as a visual representation to guide prayer.
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Rephotographed newspaper image on photographic paper, enlarged, mounted on foam with silkscreened text,
40⅝" x 23⅞"”, (101.6 x 58.4 cm).
Photo credit: Peter Turnley/ Newsweek.
Image photocredit: Andrej Glusgold.
Collection Adrian Piper Research Archive Foundation Berlin.
© APRA Foundation Berlin.
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, MH 2012.45
 
The image of mother and child plagued by famine, which was appropriated by the conceptual artist Adrian Piper, is made even more powerful through the work that the artist has added to the photograph. At the bottom of the manipulated photograph, Piper has printed the statement “we made you,” which adds new levels of meaning. This intervention further complicates the image of the mother and child by bringing up topics including origin, transmission, and ownership.
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Monotype on paper
Sheet: 41 1/2 in. x 29 1/2 in.; image: 34 in. x 23 1/2 in.
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts
Gift of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith through the Smith College Print Workshop
SC 1993:5-4
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Engraving on laid paper
8 1/2 in x 11 5/16 in
Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
Museum purchase
AC 1973.73
 
The Annunciation scene depicts the moment Saint Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary, announcing the conception of Jesus, the Son of God. A popular subject matter at the time, this image features a Latin inscription, which describes what is happening in the scene.
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Gelatin silver print
14 x 10 15/16 in.
Collection Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts
Purchased
SC 1991:2
© Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

Carrie Mae Weems, born 1953, makes art works that often deal with issues of sexuality and identity. The image of this suggestively posed woman--in combination with the text--aggressively confronts the viewer with the idea of the fallen, promiscuous woman.
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Egyptian
Block Statue of the Scribe Amunwashu
Limestone and plaster, 1386-1278 BCE
Gift of Mrs. Trent McMath
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, Massachusetts
Photograph Petegorsky / Gipe photo
1956.36.A.G

With permission of the Pharaoh, specific individuals in Ancient Egypt were permitted to have small statues made as representations of themselves, ensuring immortality and prosperity in the afterlife. Statues like this could be placed in temples and they offered a divine reward for those Egyptians who recited the script written upon them. The message on this piece translates as:
I am trustworthy, free of wrongdoing, established, one who does not associate with wrongdoers.
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C41 print mounted on aluminum
34 1/8 in x 40 1/8 in x 1 1/8 in
Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
Purchase with Wise Fund for Fine Arts
AC 2007.13

Lalla Essaydi’s work plays directly with the relationship between text and image. The calligraphy Essaydi wrote on the walls, floor, and on the model herself is chaotic and illegible. The calligraphy is a product of an intense, meditative process as well as being unrepeatable. Essaydi uses traditional text to explore gender roles as well as gender identity. Calligraphy, a traditionally male practice, has been written in henna, a material used exclusively by women.
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Gelatin silver print
8 1/2 x 10 in.
Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
Purchase with Richard Templeton (Class of 1931) Photography Fund
AC 1991.21

Peter Sekaer, a prolific American photographer, utilized photography to highlight inequality and advocate for others. In Colored Movie Entrance, Anniston, Alabama, the large “colored” sign and the poster for a Tarzan-like, racially charged film send a clear message about the state of African Americans in 1930s United States.
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Oil, acrylic on canvas
150 in x 84 in x 1 1/2 in
Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
Museum purchase
AC 2008.08
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Polychrome woodblock print
8 in x 7 1/8 in
Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
Gift of William Green
AC 1995.43

Unlike the bulk of Japanese woodblock prints, this print is a surimono, a private commission meant for distribution among a select group of individuals. The red and white square pattern on the back fan is the crest of famed kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro, and the script on the front fan is a poem by the actor himself. The delicacy of the line and range of color, both costly additions to the printing process, mark the print as a demonstration of the wealth of the patron who commissioned it.
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