Description
UPDATE, 11/16/2020: WE NOW HAVE A ONE-PRINT-PER-PERSON LIMIT ON THIS BROADSIDE, in order to make what remains in the edition available to as many people as possible. Thank you for your understanding!
PLEASE NOTE: Because Weave the People has had such an overwhelming response, we have made an unusual decision. For the first time ever, we have printed a second, alternate edition, called Re-Weave the People. We normally never reprint our editions, and have very strong opinions about the practice and the risk of devaluing prints for our collectors. Because of this, we’ve set up some ground rules about this new edition:
• The broadsides are printed in gold ink, instead of black—both to differentiate them and to symbolize the preciousness of our democracy
• Still letterpress printed by hand, still limited-edition, same paper, same price
• Gold prints are signed, but not numbered
• Gold prints are instead labeled with “APG” (“artist proof – gold”)
• There won’t be a third edition of this broadside (though postcards will be available in late-November)
• We will not be doing reprints for any of our older broadside designs
We released the first 150 prints in the gold edition, along with the few remaining APs (artist proofs) of the black edition, on Wednesday, November 11. The remaining gold prints became available on Monday, November 16.
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“We have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world, and it starts out with three words, ‘We the people.’”
– Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
This hand-pulled letterpress print is printed from hand-lettered original typography and hand-drawn illustrations (in fact, everything was done by hand, the hard way!). We created this broadside less than a week from Election Day 2020, and just six weeks following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We are still in shock, mourning her loss, and dismayed at the Republican push to nominate and confirm Amy Coney Barrett — therefore deliberately upsetting any balance in the Supreme Court and threatening Roe v. Wade, the Affordable Care Act, marriage equality, immigrant rights, and many other long-since settled laws and norms supported by the majority of voters. We have much to fear, especially if (when?) the outcome of the election will be determined by the Supreme Court.
Our 31st broadside honors Justice Ginsburg, her work on behalf of women, and the fragile hand-stitched safety net that underpins our democracy. For the first time ever, we’ve printed the piece in just one color, an intentional choice to underline the solemnity of our collective loss. And right now, as we see it, the choices for our nation are laid out in stark black-and-white. Our design is intricate, inspired by historic lacemaking methods and other “women’s work:” knitting, tatting, and bobbin lace. The words of RBG’s quote are connected by one long, fraying thread, looping and weaving itself into a collar in the shape of a delicate safety net. The lettering of the final words of the quote mirrors the original handwritten script of the preamble of the Constitution. And more, our collar evokes RBG’s “Tzedek Collar,” representing the Jewish tenet of “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof” (Justice, justice you shall pursue)—the phrase that Ginsburg had on display in her judge’s chambers.
To learn more about the piece and our process behind it, visit the blog.
In honor of Justice Ginsburg’s contributions to the rule of law, we are donating a portion of our proceeds from the original (black) edition to the National Women’s Law Center, via an Action Grant from the Dead Feminists Fund. The NWLC fights for gender justice—in the courts, in public policy, and in our society—working across the issues that are central to the lives of women and girls.
In honor of the Biden/Harris victory, to help protect the integrity of our elections, and to build on momentum for January’s run-off elections in Georgia, we’re making additional donations from the gold edition. These will be to the New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan effort to register voters in the state of Georgia—and the Brennan Center for Justice, which fights on many fronts: defending our elections, strengthening the courts, battling gerrymandering, ending mass incarceration, enfranchising every American, and more. Both of these donations will also be made via Action Grants from the Dead Feminists Fund.
This poster was printed on an antique Vandercook Universal One press. Each piece is printed on archival, 100% rag (cotton) paper, and individually signed and numbered by both artists. This piece was printed in a limited edition; once the edition sells out, it will not be reprinted. So snag your copy while you can!
Edition size: 220
Paper size: approximately 10 x 18 inches
Colophon reads:
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933–2020) was born Joan Ruth Bader in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Cornell University and married Martin D. Ginsburg. She became a mother before starting law school, first at Harvard and then at Columbia, graduating co-first in her class. President Carter appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 1980, where she served until her appointment to the Supreme Court in 1993. Later in her tenure, she became more forceful with her opinions. Her dissent in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. was credited with inspiring the 2009 Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, making it easier for employees to win pay discrimination claims. Ginsburg spent much of her career as an advocate for gender equality and women’s rights. She made clear that the Constitution did not require ignoring differences between men and women, but that any differential treatment, must not “create or perpetuate the legal, social, and economic inferiority of women.”
Ginsburg’s judicial dissents received attention in American popular culture, which earned her the moniker “The Notorious R.B.G.” Her trademark of wearing feminine lace collars over her robes enhanced this persona—which became more elaborate and symbolic over the years. A yellow jabot marked her approval, while her famous dissent collar (which she wore the day after the 2016 election) was black and spiked with rhinestones. In 2019 she debuted a collar that combined Belgian-style lace with the word “Tzedek” woven in Hebrew, signifying the Jewish tenet of “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof” (“Justice, justice you shall pursue”). Despite her heroic efforts to hold on through terminal cancer, she died before a progressive President could appoint her successor. RBG’s death in this tumultuous year may unravel the progress made during her tenure. Illustrated by Chandler O’Leary and printed by Jessica Spring, as we attempt to reknit the fragile safety net that supports our democracy—and which now hangs by a thread. 220 copies were printed by hand at Springtide Press in Tacoma.
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This original artwork is copyright Chandler O’Leary and Jessica Spring 2020. Copyright is not transferable with the sale of this print. The buyer is not entitled to reproduction rights.
WA state residents are subject to sales tax.
The print is packaged in a clear poly sleeve and will ship flat in a protective mailer, via USPS Priority Mail.
