Lisa Link's ten year touring collection, Warnings, compares contemporary anti-feminist messages on reproduction to government propaganda in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. I was privileged to see it when it came to the University of Arizona. This project focuses on propaganda, politics, and power, while asking viewers to consider several questions.

How do politicians use the control of women's reproductive health care to advance their political agendas? What does it mean when a government controls who has children and when they have them? Who must give birth to a child against her will no matter what the consequences? Who must seek an illegal unsafe abortion as a last resort to preserve her health or life?

Link's video and photomontages were inspired by recent legislature that has begun to erode the reproduction rights granted by the 1973 Roe vs. Wade. Anti-choice groups focus solely on abortion and when life starts, rather than addressing reproduction as a whole. These groups have gone to extremes to air their messages such as the bombing of family planning clinics, vandalism, threats, kidnapping, physical harassment, and murder - incidents of which number in the thousands. Propaganda used by these groups often equates the use or support of reproductive options with Nazi behavior. However, Lisa Link's research concluded that anti-choice and Nazi groups have strikingly identical viewpoints, such as the demonization of abortion and the fear of minorities over-breeding.

This project and others by Lisa Link are important social commentary on the ways that politics directly affect how we view, understand, and treat women's bodies. I was lucky to speak with her one evening on her work.

LMW: Are you still on tour with Warnings?

LL: No. A huge goal of mine was to find it a permanent home and this is something I have been working on for a long time. It's hard as an artist to find someone to take care of your work forever. It had been touring without stop for over ten years. I am really excited the show is now at the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles. Some of the early graphics are at the Harvard Art Museum in Cambridge.

LMW: Since your project now has a home, what do you think it adds to the political conversation contemporarily?

LL: I first made the show when Clinton was running for office. I made it as a political statement to encourage pro-choice people who weren't voting and showed it at voter registration meetings and all that stuff. It's scary to think that some of the issues have not gone away.

LMW: Do you think your project has impact?

LL: When it was touring in Florida, which wasn't a particularly liberal area, I remember people coming up to me who were really happy that some artist was doing work about the issues. One woman brought back her mother the next day. When it was traveling, I think it provided a point of view that people have, but never saw validated in the media. It lets people think about the issues and that they still live in a country where they can express a point of view that might be different than what they saw on network television. That's where I really saw the impact.

LMW: Are you working on any contemporary projects related to women, feminism, or reproduction?

LL: I working with some colleagues on a project called Birth Matters, which is a documentary on the politics of labor and delivery in the hospitals right now, looking at attitudes about women and the economics that drive how people are treated in maternity care. People have done it, but we really want to do an updated version talking to some national experts on the topic and interviewing women about what their expectations are going into the hospital and do follow-up interviews with them after about what they really experienced in the hospital. There's been some really obnoxious treatment of women who are educated and do all this preparation before they go to the hospital and then they are treated [badly], like they're not allowed to go to the bathroom.

LMW: I read that most babies are born and cesareans take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays because doctors are there that day, due to the medicalization of motherhood and the controlling of pregnancy by medical institutions.

LL: {quotes}Most of these issues are about power and who's controlling women's bodies and making major life and healthcare decisions.{/quotes} You know, having a baby or not having a baby is a totally personal right, a breaking, making experience. Who gets to make the kind of decisions that control [women]? Whose interests are involved in making those decisions? Because it is not the women. Why do they want to control someone's life like that? It's crazy. Why are there these statistical trends of delivery at certain times of the day and certain days of the week? It's scary because it has become so normalized and people just go along with it when they wouldn't in every other aspect of their lives.

LMW: When you had your children, what kind of experience did you have?

LL: I started out in a regular hospital with a doctor and then I started reading up on feminist books on how it works. I thought I am so out of there. I just felt awkward there, the whole environment was weird. I felt very lucky to find a nurse-midwife practice in a hospital and mainly unless things got dangerous the nurses and midwives were the primary care-givers. They were so nice and they were so respectful. They didn't make it into this weird HMO mandated experience.

LMW: Is there anything else you want to say about Birth Matters?

LL: If there are people who are pregnant and would like to be interviewed or be part of the video for Birth Matters, they can contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

LMW: Tell me about your healthcare project.

LL: I want to do one on healthcare looking at the marketing of pharmaceuticals and the economics involved with health care and why 44 million people don't have any. I am right now working on the fundraising for this project. I'm looking for people who are interested in collaborating too.

LMW: For aspiring feminist artists, how would you tell them to empower themselves to reach their goals and dreams as you have?

LL: I probably should have had a steady, higher earning job. To be empowered you need to be financially self-sufficient and not depending on grants or someone else to fund your work. I hope that doesn't sound awful.

LMW: No. I think it's a reality and you have to talk about money if you want to reach your goals.

LL: I think I was very idealistic with my career, but I've recently been doing a lot of freelance design work, which allows me a lot of flexibility and to be able to work from home and getting paid for doing something. I think it's 1% of artist who actually who can make a profit on their artwork. It's important to figure out how to balance all those things together. I do half and half. Half graphic design and half art, so I do both. I think having the financial stuff is the base of empowerment. And it's not giving up on goals, even though it might take a long time. Keep with your dreams even if it's a long, long time. When I first wrote to the Center for the Study of Political Graphics if they would accept my work [Warnings] in their collection, I think they said no or we'll see. Then I came back a few years later and said it's been touring, it's had great response, look at all these reviews and it worked out.

Artist Lisa Link received a bachelor's degree from Harvard, an MFA from University of Boulder Colorado, and continues her education at the University of Massachusetts. Lisa Link has taught at Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, Boston Arts Academy, University of Colorado at Boulder and most recently University of Massachusetts. She has been the recipient of several artist awards including the Puffin Foundation Award and Massachusetts Cultural Council Professional Development Grant.

Artist Gallery

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