I Was a 20th Century Lesbian > 1: The Curse

A moku hanga woodblock print by Annie Bissett with an image of the 13th station and a list of LGBT people who have been murdered (hate crimes) in the past 30 years.
DIED FOR OUR SINS
Woodblock print
14.5" x 20.5" (37 x 52.4 cm)

This print is a tribute to LGBTQ people who have been murdered in the past 30 years or so. Thirty names, derived from a simple Google search, are listed in the background. These are mostly the well-publicized murders, like the killings of Matthew Shepard and Brandon Teena. I listed an additional three murder victims, crimes that affected me directly -- the killing of my friend and neighbor Joe Kelly in 1986 and the murder shortly afterward of a lesbian couple named Martha Alsup and Susan Galvin who were well known psychotherapists in Boston. The fact that I have personally known of three queer people being murdered who do not appear in Google searches would lead me to believe that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of others. I wanted to also include we who are left behind to grieve, so I combined the names of the victims with an image of the 13th Station of the Cross, when Jesus' body is taken down from the cross and given to his mother and a few disciples.

12" x 17.75" (30.5 x 45 cm) image size
made with 3 shina plywood blocks
5 hand-rubbed color layers
Nishinouchi paper
Edition: 12