On "My Body, a Wunderkammer"

Wunderkammer -- Wun-der-kam-mer /ˈvo͝ondərˌkämər/      plural: Wunderkammern

• meaning: a place where a collection of curiosities and rarities is exhibited
• origin: German
• literally means "wonder chamber"

Writer-Illustrator Shelley Jackson created "My Body, a Wunderkammer" in 1997, serving as an explanation for the low-fi sound of breathing that introduces the piece, and the art style that is not as refined as the illustrations Jackson used in 2005 for Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners.

Magic for Beginners, Kelly Link (2005).
Cover design by Shelley Jackson)

From "My Body, a Wunderkammer"
(Larger)

The familiarity of the author's name (love Magic for Beginners--one of my all-time favorite book covers) as well as the compelling title, drew me into the work. The art itself, while not as neat as Jackson's later work, is given a strength in that its lack of neatness can be seen as a "raw" quality which then correlates to the corporeal themes of the work. At times, the writing has a rawness, a lack of refinement that makes it seem more authentic and animalistic.

When I say animalistic, I merely mean to say, it's visceral, even primordial, but that's not good descriptors, as the work is thoughtful, but does so without meaning to be. The writing itself seems to be stream of consciousness, like the speaker looked at her naked body in the mirror, zeroed in a particular part, and wrote about it as the words came to her.

There was one good thing about the uncomfortable plastic chairs I sat in all through grade school: if I rubbed my arm against the back of the chair on a dry day, I got a funny feeling as if there were a layer of warm felt between my skin and the plastic. If I held my arm the right distance away, every hair stretched straight out toward the plastic. Then if I moved it slightly further away, every hair would droop in unison. With infinitesimal movements, invisible to everyone else, I could make my hairs straighten and bow, straighten and bow. (link)

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Credits

Writing: Eli Brittingham & Ashley Bach

Editing: Laura Soltis and Chad Kusenko