Martha Wilson
"Breast Forms Permutated"
Black and white photographs, text
45 x 36.5 x 3 cm
Artist's proof 2/3 from an edition of 4 + 3 artist's proofs
1972/2008
In Breast Forms Permutated, Martha Wilson applies set theory, a branch of mathematical based on the principle of permutation, used by conceptual artists of the 1960s and 1970s, to the most fetishized aspect of female anatomy: breasts. She permutes the breast form, deriving nine iterations from a single variable. Mocking the tendency to police the female body and to establish universal standards of female beauty, Wilson places the «perfect set» in the center of her grid.