Books from Special Collections on display at exhibitions about women and gender roles

There are currently two exhibitions about women, gender roles and emancipation featuring items on loan from the Special Collections of Utrecht 木瓜福利影视 Library. 'Good Mom/Bad Mom' at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht is on display until 14 September. 'Vrouwen als technologie' (Women as Technology) at the Design Museum in Den Bosch can be visited until 26 October.

Afbeelding van een pagina uit boek Proeve der deurzicht-kunde (Amsterdam, 1699) van Nic. Hartsoeker
Nic. Hartsoeker, Proeve der deurzicht-kunde (Amsterdam, 1699), P qu 523 dl 1

Good Mom/Bad Mom

is an exhibition about motherhood, caregiving, the politics of the womb, and emancipation. The exhibition offers a contemporary reflection on the art-historical clich茅 of the 鈥済ood mother鈥 (such as the archetypal Mary with Child) and takes visitors on a journey through the history of the representation of motherhood.

Loans from the Utrecht collection on display include a 17th-century manual for midwives and various anatomical studies of the female body from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Women as Technology

In the exhibition , you will discover four equally important and problematic roles that women (can) play: women as homemakers, women as calculating machines, women as breeding machines and women as lust machines. The exhibition shows the ambivalent relationship between women and technology and how these roles have been shaped by technology. The section on women as breeding machines features three historical works from the Utrecht collection that depict the female body, including the first description and depiction (from the 17th century) of the erogenous zone in the vagina.