'Women’s Work' - A signed, limited edition print by British contemporary artist Tom Phillips.

This print is based on a patchwork quilt Phillips made in 1997- the quilt was made up from fragments of cards advertising prostitutes ‘tart art’ that littered every public phone box. The symmetry between ‘women’s work’- meaning prostitution and ‘women’s work’ meaning quilt-making and other such domestic pursuits caught his interest. In Britain there is a connection between sowing and prostitution. Phillips elaborates,

"‘In the Victorian era the seamstress augmented her earnings by such means and the prostitute gained a little extra money between clients by taking in sewing. This is in contrast to the clear opposition in the male imagination of the ‘little woman’ at home plying her patient needle and the potent object of erotic desire offering outlandish sexual adventures.

I first collected examples of tart-art out of aimless fascination. While the drawings were frequently in the mode of Victorian illustrations the texts had their own brisk poetry (‘Xmas fun!/Spank my Bum’). As usual, collection long preceded any kind of work and it was only a reminder of the connection between seamstress and prostitute that led to the idea of a quilt. The goal was to celebrate via a traditional design the rich colours of the cards at a scale where words were enigmatically incomplete and bits of drawing could flow one into the other. The finished quilt was first shown in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1997. Brian Sewell (who sometimes inadvertently praises where he means to castigate) singled it out in the Evening Standard as an object more appropriate to a women’s institute than an art gallery, thereby giving it some credentials of success." - Tom Phillips

Please note the print is subject to availability and prices may change.