Don't Cut Your Hair It's Beautiful book
Don't Cut Your Hair It's Beautiful

By Kellee Morgado
Photography by Frances Melhop
Reno, Nevada: Black Rock Press, 2020. Edition of 50.

4.6875in x 8in x 0.5in.; 72 pages. Offset printing on Ultra Green Film (text pages). Letterpress printed with hand set lead type (News Gothic Bold & Century Bold Italic). Boards bound in Hollanders starched linen book cloth (Natural/Kennett). Bugra Antique Rose (paste downs). Three sewn pamphlets laid in cloth covered boards. Pamphlets binding sewn with monofilament. Belly band of cream. Signed by Morgado and numbered.

Kellee Morgado: "'Don’t Cut Your Hair It’s Beautiful' disrupts and explores the relationship between hair that is considered valuable and hair that must be hidden, removed, and made invisible. The book includes contributions from twelve creatives in particular, but not limited to, those working with hair as a subject or material. These individuals were invited to respond to one of several prompts or to generate their own response about hair on the body. They could also choose to include an image, either found or made. These twelve writings provide thoughts and experiences surrounding hair, multiple points of access, and themes connected to hair on the body including: shame, resistance, and identity.

"Hair, from head to toe, is a mutable mode of self-expression and identity. Hair on the head and body is intimately woven through feminism, gender, sexuality, spirituality, race, religion, culture, and resistance. It is my hope that more people come to celebrate their hair, empower others’ choice, and that the expression of body hair on female aligned individuals will be just as normal as its removal; free of shame and judgement.

"'Don’t Cut Your Hair It’s Beautiful' is a set of interactive books that asks the reader to fold and unfold pages to construct or reveal images and text. Through the use of fragmented images, readers are encouraged to explore multiple possibilities of sequencing and arrangement where covers pair with center spreads to construct complete images."

Twelve participants: AB Gorham, Alisa Banks, Frances Melhop, Althea Murphy-Price, Rebecca Drolen, Jayoung Yoon, Kellee Morgado, Kate Kretz, Suzanne Gold, Kat Howard, Sarah Scarr, and Judith Rodby.
$25
0