Overview

Gay Block began photographing her mother, Bertha Alyce, in 1973 and continued until Bertha Alyce's death resulting from a stroke in 1991. This collection of Block's photographs (sections of which involve nudity) presents her complicated, and at times difficult, relationship with her mother and a mother-daughter quest for healing. This intensely personal and intimate account could easily be a reflection of any family today. Essays by Eugenia Parry, author of Crime Album Stories: Paris 1886-1902, and Kathleen Stewart Howe, curator of the University of New Mexico Museum, accompany the photographs. To complete the presentation, the award-winning DVD 'Bertha Alyce' is included (28 minutes in length).

Full Product Details

9780826330949

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Reviews

Bertha Alyce is many things: it is a catharsis, an exposA(c), and a glimpse into affluent Jewish life in the South. It is like a museum exhibit between two covers. Like all art, it is deeply personal, challenging and at times, uncomfortable. . . Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed is a portrait unlike any other; a fitting tribute to a unique woman and all the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship.

A most remarkable, vivid, shriekingly-real record of a relationship. . . It took a lot of courage for the author to create this book. It takes a bit to read it. Block shows how someone standing in another's strong shadow can endure maternal domination, witness the corrosion of time on vanity, and escape to construct a rich, productive life on her own terms. A book of emotional aptitude such as this is rare, and Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed is worth having for its unique style. A lifetime of photographs seem both familiar and alarming, spinning a narrative of their own that tugged on my heart like lost memories. I found hope and communion in Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed ; Block's personal journey is an affecting ride that may prompt you to examine your own memories. Bertha Alyce is many things: it is a catharsis, an exposA(c), and a glimpse into affluent Jewish life in the South. It is like a museum exhibit between two covers. Like all art, it is deeply personal, challenging and at times, uncomfortable. . . Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed is a portrait unlike any other; a fitting tribute to a unique woman and all the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship.

""""Bertha Alyce"" is many things: it is a catharsis, an exposA(c), and a glimpse into affluent Jewish life in the South. It is like a museum exhibit between two covers. Like all art, it is deeply personal, challenging and at times, uncomfortable. . .""Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed"" is a portrait unlike any other; a fitting tribute to a unique woman and all the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship."" ""A book of emotional aptitude such as this is rare, and ""Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed"" is worth having for its unique style. A lifetime of photographs seem both familiar and alarming, spinning a narrative of their own that tugged on my heart like lost memories. I found hope and communion in ""Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed""; Block's personal journey is an affecting ride that may prompt you to examine your own memories."" ""Block shows how someone standing in another's strong shadow can endure maternal domination, witness the corrosion of time on vanity, and escape to construct a rich, productive life on her own terms."" ""A most remarkable, vivid, shriekingly-real record of a relationship. . . It took a lot of courage for the author to create this book. It takes a bit to read it.""

Author Information

Gay Block's photographs have been exhibited in museums since 1975, including a solo exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1992 when her collaboration on Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust with writer Malka Drucker was published. Block lives in Santa Fe.

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