Vortrag

Puér­pera UK Book Launch — Deb­o­rah Elen­ter in Con­ver­sa­tion with Helen Knowles
Fri­day 27 March 2026, 5.00–6.30pm (arrivals from 5pm)
Women’s Art Library, Spe­cial Collections
Goldsmiths
Uni­ver­si­ty of London
New Cross, SE14 6NW London

Free (book­ing essential)

Book­ing site

ABOUT THIS EVENT

Join us for the UK launch of Puér­pera, a pow­er­ful pho­to­book by Mon­te­v­ideo-born visu­al artist, pho­tog­ra­ph­er and doula Deb­o­rah Elen­ter, pub­lished by the Cen­tro de Fotografía de Montevideo.

Since 2015, Elen­ter has been doc­u­ment­ing the expe­ri­ences of peo­ple giv­ing birth — work that con­fronts the his­tor­i­cal invis­i­bil­i­ty of child­birth in con­tem­po­rary art, reclaim­ing it as a vital, polit­i­cal and col­lec­tive expe­ri­ence. Under her lens, the birthing room becomes a polit­i­cal space, and the act of birth part of the col­lec­tive strug­gle of fem­i­nism. Hav­ing launched at La Fábri­ca Book­store in Madrid and at Košice Uni­ver­si­ty in Slo­va­kia, we are hon­oured to host the UK edi­tion at the Women’s Art Library.

The evening will fea­ture a con­ver­sa­tion between Deb­o­rah Elen­ter and Helen Knowles, Direc­tor and Cura­tor of the Birth Rites Col­lec­tion, chaired by Dr Althea Greenan, Cura­tor of the Women’s Art Library. The dis­cus­sion will explore birth, pho­tog­ra­phy, the body and the pol­i­tics of mak­ing vis­i­ble what has long been ren­dered invisible.

As part of this event, Deb­o­rah Elen­ter has gen­er­ous­ly donat­ed an edi­tion of Puér­pera along­side a framed pho­to­graph­ic work to the Birth Rites Col­lec­tion, and a fur­ther copy of the pho­to­book to the Women’s Art Library. In turn, the Birth Rites Col­lec­tion will gift a selec­tion of his­tor­i­cal pam­phlets, fliers and doc­u­men­ta­tion of its work since 2009 to the Women’s Art Library — a fit­ting exchange between two col­lec­tions com­mit­ted to pre­serv­ing and mak­ing vis­i­ble the expe­ri­ences of women.

Books will be avail­able for pur­chase and sign­ing after the talk.

SPEAKER BIOS

Deb­o­rah Elen­ter is a Mon­te­v­ideo-born visu­al artist, pho­tog­ra­ph­er and doula. Since 2015 she has doc­u­ment­ed over 150 births, pro­duc­ing inti­mate and unflinch­ing images that reclaim child­birth as a vital, polit­i­cal and col­lec­tive expe­ri­ence. Her project Puér­pera has been exhib­it­ed at the Uruguayan Con­tem­po­rary Art Muse­um, Espa­cio de Arte Con­tem­porá­neo, and Hipere­s­pa­cio in Mon­te­v­ideo, and received inter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion includ­ing awards from Uruguay’s Direc­ción Nacional de Cul­tura and the Fun­dación Itaú Cul­tur­al. Her pho­to­book Puér­pera, pub­lished by the Cen­tro de Fotografía de Mon­te­v­ideo, launched in 2025. Along­side her pho­to­graph­ic prac­tice, Elen­ter col­lab­o­rates on Uruguay’s pro­posed Dig­ni­fied Birth legislation.

Dr Althea Greenan is Cura­tor of the Women’s Art Library at Gold­smiths, Uni­ver­si­ty of Lon­don. She has worked with the col­lec­tion since 1989, first as a vol­un­teer with the Women Artists’ Slide Library and then as cura­tor when the col­lec­tion was gift­ed to Gold­smiths in 2002. Her work posi­tions the archive in con­tem­po­rary prac­tice, sup­port­ing artists and researchers in devel­op­ing new projects from its hold­ings. She has writ­ten wide­ly on women’s art prac­tice and fem­i­nist archiv­ing, pub­lish­ing in aca­d­e­m­ic jour­nals, art mag­a­zines and edit­ed vol­umes. She has spo­ken at the Roy­al Acad­e­my, CCA Glas­gow, Som­er­set House and internationally.

Helen Knowles is a British artist, film­mak­er and cura­tor, and Direc­tor of the Birth Rites Col­lec­tion — the only con­tem­po­rary art col­lec­tion inter­na­tion­al­ly ded­i­cat­ed to child­birth and mater­nal expe­ri­ence. Found­ed in 2008, the col­lec­tion com­pris­es over 120 art­works by artists includ­ing Judy Chica­go, Himali Singh Soin, and Court­ney Con­rad. Knowles’s own work has been exhib­it­ed at the Mori Art Muse­um, ZKM Karl­sruhe, Ars Elec­tron­i­ca, Zablu­dow­icz Col­lec­tion and Kun­sthaus Graz, and is held by the Whit­worth, Tate, and the Vic­to­ria and Albert Muse­um. She was award­ed a PhD from Northum­bria Uni­ver­si­ty in 2025.

ABOUT THE BIRTH RITES COLLECTION

The Birth Rites Col­lec­tion is the only con­tem­po­rary art col­lec­tion ded­i­cat­ed to child­birth, repro­duc­tion and mater­nal expe­ri­ence in the world. Found­ed in 2008 by artist and cura­tor Helen Knowles, it com­pris­es over 120 works by artists includ­ing Judy Chica­go, Himali Singh Soin, Anna Per­ach, Deb­o­rah Elen­ter, and Court­ney Con­rad. The col­lec­tion has been host­ed by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Sal­ford (2013–2017), King’s Col­lege Lon­don (2017–2021) and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Kent (2022–2026), with exhi­bi­tion part­ner­ships at the Whit­worth Art Gallery, IKON and Leeds City Art Gallery. Since 2019, the col­lec­tion has run an annu­al Sum­mer School for artists, mid­wives and researchers. birthritescollection.org.uk

ALSO

Can’t make Fri­day 27th? Deb­o­rah will also be at The Pho­to­book Cafe on Mon­day 30 March, 6–7.30pm for a relaxed, infor­mal book sign­ing. Free — book sep­a­rate­ly via Eventbrite.

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