Hanka van der Voet Recovers Amsterdam Seamstresses' Union History in New Book
Hanka van der Voet has released a new book titled "All Work is Women's Work," focusing on The Seamstress Union, an early 20th-century all-female labor organization in Amsterdam. Published by Clotheslines Press, the work is inspired by a 1970s exhibition catalogue discovered at Tesselschade library. The book features contributions from Beau Bertens, including essays, a map of historical garment workshops, and distinct female-themed typography enriched with Art Deco influences from De Naaistersbode. The project's debut took place at San Serriffe in Amsterdam and was showcased in the No Place For Mannequins exhibition at UTS Sydney.
Key facts
- All Work is Women's Work is published by Clotheslines Press, van der Voet's small press focused on fashion, labour and feminism
- The book documents The Seamstress Union, one of the first all-female labour unions in the Netherlands
- Van der Voet found a 1970s exhibition catalogue at Amsterdam's Tesselschade library that sparked the research
- Beau Bertens designed the publication, incorporating Art Deco ornaments from De Naaistersbode
- All typefaces in the book were designed by women: TorreFarfan, Wondertype and CCM Coda
- Xerox-printed garments were produced with Alia Mascia and her platform Xeroxed
- Van der Voet wrote Women Unstitched for the fifteenth issue of MacGuffin: The Stitch
- The project launched at San Serriffe Amsterdam and appeared in the No Place For Mannequins exhibition at UTS Sydney
Entities
Artists
- Hanka van der Voet
- Femke de Vries
- Beau Bertens
- Estefanía González Sánchez
- Yvonne Diedrich
- Anna Cairns
- Alia Mascia
- Diego Diez
- Jacquie Manning
- Ellis Tree
Institutions
- Clotheslines Press
- Tesselschade
- San Serriffe Amsterdam
- University of Technology Sydney
- MacGuffin
- Xeroxed
- Press & Fold
- The Warehouse Review
- A Magazine Reader
- It's Nice That
- Kingston School of Art
Locations
- Amsterdam
- Netherlands
- Sydney
- Australia