history constructs the house that sometimes holds us, published by Women's Studio Workshop in 2025, traces the chaotic policies of housing removal and tenant relocation that were central to the mid 20th-century federal urban renewal programs. The research for this project coincided with the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, a moment in time that would lay bare a crisis of social care, and how the legacies of unequal housing and infrastructure development have led to the disastrous housing policies of our own time. Drawing from archival collections in New York City and New Haven, Connecticut, the layered images reflect the intimacy and violence of bureaucratic systems. In decentering established narratives of Urban Renewal programs, we can hear community anti-displacement histories, and the insistence of doing memory work to understand the systemic roots of generational housing injustice. The scale and accordion structure of the book allows the reader to experience the pages as a landscape, moving inside and outside architecture, time, and memory.
This book is originally printed using Risograph and silk screen processes, some elements in this copy have been simplified to make the book available as a pdf download.
To assemble in a book format:
1. Print pages 1-10 first.
2. Turn printed pages over and print pages 11-20 on the other sides.
3. Cut off only the page excess indicated in red and cut out shapes on pages 3 and 5.
4. Fold back the indicated margin tab and lay the folded tab along the edge of the page behind it to assemble the shape of an accordion structure.
5. Use double-sided tape or glue stick to adhere pages into the accordion shape.
This book is originally printed using Risograph and silk screen processes, some elements in this copy have been simplified to make the book available as a pdf download.
To assemble in a book format:
1. Print pages 1-10 first.
2. Turn printed pages over and print pages 11-20 on the other sides.
3. Cut off only the page excess indicated in red and cut out shapes on pages 3 and 5.
4. Fold back the indicated margin tab and lay the folded tab along the edge of the page behind it to assemble the shape of an accordion structure.
5. Use double-sided tape or glue stick to adhere pages into the accordion shape.
