INSTALLATIONS BY ANN FESSLER

April 19–September 9, 2007
Juanita Kreps Gallery

Reception: April 19, 6–9 p.m., artist's talk at 7 p.m.
Reading and Book Signing: June 28, 7–9 p.m.

Listen to an audio preview of Ann Fessler's work (1:45 minutes) [Copyright Ann Fessler 2007]


Everlasting: The Girls Who Went Away is a multi-channel, surround-sound audio installation based on oral history interviews Ann Fessler conducted with women who surrendered a baby for adoption in the 1950s and 1960s. Visitors are invited to sit in chairs and listen to fragments of stories that combine to make a collective narrative. Fessler, who interviewed women across the country, has brought their stories together in a nonfiction book, The Girls Who Went Away (Penguin Press, 2006).

Listen to Ann Fessler discuss Everlasting on WUNC's "The State of Things"

Listen to Ann Fessler discuss Everlasting on WBUR's "The Connection"



Installation view of Everlasting: The Girls Who Went Away


Cliff & Hazel is an adopted daughter's humorous and poignant video portrait of the parents who shaped her identity. Fessler documents a trip home to celebrate her mother's 80th birthday. It is the first visit since the death of her father, and her mother's words come easier in his absence. As Hazel talks about her opposition to women's liberation and her belief that a woman's place is in the home, the contradictions and complexities of her life begin to unfold.



Installation view of Cliff & Hazel







banner image:

Partial view of the Lyndhurst Gallery, one of four exhibition spaces at CDS. Photograph by Christoper Sims.


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