P. Hanson

Unidentified Female
acrylic, photocopy transfer, tissue
8 x 7 in.

My husband of twenty-plus years was a misogynist. It took many years for me to understand this, and when I did, I attempted to leave the relationship. His response was to take a hammer and bash in my skull, coldly and methodically, with the intent to kill. I would have ended up dead and buried in the woods somewhere except for luck and a strong will to live.

References to this experience appear in my work through the imagery I use, most often skulls. The words and numbers in this piece are from the plastic bag that held my bloody clothes in the hospital. I think about the women who die by violence and whose lives are put in a plastic bag stamped “Unidentified Female”.

© P. Hanson