Her Read: A Graphic Poem

An erasure of Herbert Read’s The Meaning of Art, a seminal work of art criticism first published in 1931, Her Read is a hybrid text ‘part sculpture part theatre part hospital.’

In the summer of 2016, rendered otherwise speechless by the amplification of hate on the national stage, and its resonance with silencing in Steinorth’s personal life, she began a hybrid project, at once poetry and visual art. Appropriating a library discard of The Meaning of Art, by Herbert Read (Faber & Faber, 1931), and with liberal use of correction fluid and ink, she began excavating a first-person lyric. From the voice of the male critic surveying the cannon of male artists, she imagined voice(s) of womxn - objects become authors, become artists.

Her Read is part of Con[text]ual, a series illuminating the intersection of visual art and text in the context of ideas that deepen our understanding of the contemporary world.