Edition of 26 lettered A-Z, with 10 numbered deluxe, printed letterpress, front and verso. Page designs in red ink repeated on each page, with over 50 original drawings. The Tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venice – by William Shakespeare: 192-pages printed letterpress on Mohawk Superfine. The Tragedy of Desdemona – by Mindy Belloff: 150-pages printed letterpress on Johannot Arches cotton rag papers, text includes ancient Nag Hammadi poetry, narrative passages of Ovid, Dostoevsky, and Alice Walker, statistics compiled from a variety of sources including the United Nations and current news sources. Miniature book, dos-a-dos binding with letterpress printed St. Armand cotton paper covers. Standard bound by Mindy Belloff, deluxe leather binding by Celine Lombardi. Book 3-1/2 x 2-3/4 inches, with LCD screen Video Card 2 x 3-1/2 with USB port, inside a custom clamshell box (in progress for April 2023).
Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her!
Come, go with me apart; I will withdraw,
To furnish me with some swift means of death for the fair devil. – Othello
This double-bound miniature pairs a classic seventeenth-century Shakespearean text with historic and contemporary poetry and writings, along with current news and statistics on femicide. The layered narrative includes a video component, also in dialog with issues around gender and class.
Soft you. A word or two before you go. Speak of me as I am
Of one that loved not wisely, but too well. – Othello
I loved her; always have and always will.
If we had a problem, it’s because I loved her so much. – O.J.
The character Othello, a respected General who marries and then murders a younger woman, Lady Desdemona, parallels a modern Othello in the sports and television personality of O.J. Simpson, who was accused of the double murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994. Both are tragic stories of jealous rage, domestic violence, male dominance, upper class privilege, and femicide. The intention in this edition is not to offer answers to readers on gender disparities or racial prejudices either during Shakespeare’s time or now, but to create dialog, conflicting though it may be—that address questions around gender, identity, jealousy, control, dominance, domestic abuse, and racial divides.
Violence against women and girls is “still so deeply embedded in cultures around the world that it is almost invisible,” the UN says, describing it as “a construct of power and a means of maintaining the status-quo…..Gender‑based violence and discrimination against women continue unabated, even as the pandemic continues to exact a greater toll on them than their male counterparts.” – United Nations
According to a UN Report, an estimated 81,100 women and girls were killed intentionally in 2021 and at least 45,000 were killed by partners or family members.
A percentage of sales from this edition will be donated to help support victims of domestic violence. This may include: UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women, managed by UN Women https://untfevaw.rallyup.com/supportuntf and Project Opal (The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence NCADV with the National Domestic Violence Hotline), https://ncadv.org/Project-Opal.
