Books Of Esther
Willa’s mother, a first generation American, was a survivor of larynx cancer, and wrote what she would normally speak. Willa utilizes ceramic sculpture, photographs, audio clips and personal objects to reveal how memory, language, Jewish identity, work, disability and aging, shape a life. Willa has created the echo of the voice no longer there, the shape of the hand that held the pen. The Books of Esther: an interdisciplinary exhibition of the life of one woman who ’talked through writing" took place at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in the Fall of 2012. This exhibition is about the artifacts of our lives, and how we infuse them with meaning. "The Books of Esther" also embodies the essential contribution of written language, and how one woman's need to communicate trumped her disability.
Femme Fatal
Limited Edition Letterpress Chapbook Signing, Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, 2012
Death Bed
"The Books of Esther: the life of one woman who 'spoke’ through writing."
Willa was interviewed by Ed Kraus on the "Yiddish Hour," KBOO community radio, Portland, about "The Books of Esther."
W.A.A.C. Cap - Original
W.A.A.C Cap - Ceramic Version
Clipboard - from a series of works utilizing snippets from Esther's actual "talking books."
A final snippet from one of Esther's actual "Talking Books," close to her death.
Willa was interviewed by OREGON JEWISH LIFE