Motherland

We are excited to share the first images of our newest book ‘(M)otherland’ by Ruth Patir, which accompanies her multi-part video installation at the 2024 Venice Biennale of Art. Based on documentary footage of her own experience undergoing fertility preservation treatments, (M)otherland layers the artist’s intimate storytelling with ancient archaeology and advanced image technologies. Laced with candid reflections and biting humor, (M)otherland addresses larger societal issues, such as the politics of gender and the body, and the hidden mechanisms of power.

When Patir was diagnosed as a carrier of the BRCA gene mutation, she began to use her iPhone to document her negotiation between important decisions related to her body, and broader societal pressures around female fertility, contextualized within Israel’s demographic obsession. Patir’s personal odyssey recasts the artist as an ancient “fertility figurine”, a type of female statuette that was widely common in ancient Judea yet one that has mystified archaeologists for centuries.

This book was produced in the months following the terror attacks of October 7 and the devastating Hamas-Israel war, in the depths of horror and despair. Patir refused to open the exhibition until a ceasefire and hostage-release agreement would be reached, and dedicated the book “to all the women who have lost their lives in this vicious war – both Israeli and Palestinian – and to those who were left to pick up the pieces.”

As the exhibition has yet to open, the book makes (M)otherland accessible in a new form, including essays by the co-curators Mira Lapidot and Tamar Margalit, and additional essays by scholars Noam Gal, Keren Goldberg and a conversation between the artist and Eva Illouz.

The book was designed by Field Day Studio, edited by Mira Lapidot and Tamar Margalit, and printed at Die Keure. It is available internationally for distribution via Idea Books. Thank you to the entire team who worked on it, including the 3Sisters Studio, Piotr Filatov and Daniel Shamota, Jonathan Wasserman, Field Day Studio led by Zohar Koren and Idan Am-Shalem, Leanna Berkovitch, Daria Kassovsky and Yael Patir, Yuval Katz, Dana Meirson, Omer Tirosh.

Ruth Patir (b. 1984; lives and works in Tel Aviv) is a new media artist who integrates documentary storytelling with computer-generated imagery. Her work is often grounded in her biography, gradually opening up to address larger societal issues, such as the politics of gender, technology, and the hidden mechanisms of power.

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19 x 25cm, 236 Pages, Soft Cover with Silkscreen and Blind Emboss on Cover,
Ota Bind, Magno Gloss 115gsm, Arena Natural Rough 90gsm,
ISBN 978-1-988689-13-5, Design by Field Day Studio. Edition of 1500 Copies.