Janemaria Mekoline Pedersen (2020)

It hasn’t been a problem getting pregnant over the years. Staying pregnant, however, has been riddled with bodily dysfunctionality for Janemaria.

Professional insemination and pharmaceutical aid did not change the circumstance that the fetus never transcended 12-weeks. Every time, her body would reject the pregnancy, and in its place, grief would grow.

Dysfertil is Janemaria’s journey towards acceptance, and in the book she turns herself inside out to show us the spectrum of hope and despair.

When Janemaria started working on this project she was still trying to become a mother. Dysfertil has been a long time coming.

The white, transparent pages of Dysfertil are held together with a glue-binding making the book fragile, but strong. The softcover book comes in either an open graphite cardboard box with no lid, where the book is tied down with a single string that needs to be loosened to remove the book from the box, or a closed graphite cardboard slipcase. The two versions refer to hope and fragility, but also loss and strength.

Graphite cardboard box - either open box or closed slipcase (please remark when ordering)
70 pages of b/w and colour photography
French folded pages
Glue-binding
Printed on Opakal, 60 gr.
Handmade by the artist in an edition of 72 copies only. All copies are signed and numbered by the artist.

Dysfertil was shortlisted for the Encontros da Imagem photobook award in 2020.