STICHWORT's Poster Archive

Hanging Dream

Stefanie Bierbaumer / Barbara Oberwasserlechner in:
STICHWORT Newsletter 3/1997

STICHWORT has archived over 700 posters according to publisher, title, subject, design, or event. These provide a pictorial tour through the autonomous women's movement as of 1972 when women began to protest the anti-abortion law (paragraph 144), organized sit-ins, demonstrations, founded women's magazines, and secured women's spaces.

The first posters are hand-written calls for the fight for recognition of lesbian women within the women's movement. Later posters attest to the successful networking of lesbian groups, and a more recent feature 'for lesbians only' is the poster with assembly instructions of the "Sappho 2000" pinwheel.

Numerous posters announce international women's day celebrations, and, sadly, the bulk of the posters indicate that women must still fight for an end to violence against women. Because women are known to have a need for amusement, however, the majority of the posters announce women's events and festivals.

Empowerment is provided, for example, by the offers of the Women's Summer University, the International Women's Film Festival, or the exhibition of comics from the Siberian lesbian scene. These are supplemented by the self-presentations of diverse women's groups, women's archives and newspapers.

Posters can be borrowed for exhibition purposes under certain conditions.