die Stimme
A long time ago, I found a brown cardboard box in my parents’ basement. On the lid was written “Voice of the Woman” in my mother’s handwriting. Inside was a stack of magazines from the series of the same name, dating from 1955 and 1956. I imagined that the magazines had belonged to my grandmother and had been kept by my mother—just as one sometimes keeps certain things without quite knowing why. The weight of this box in my hands felt good, and I liked what the word voice evoked in me.
Magazines as material
Articles on raising children, marriage and household,
interior design,fashion and handicrafts, health and sports;
advertising copy;
romantic serial stories, horoscopes; classified ads and letters from readers
Many of the texts read in a frightening way, as one would expect for that time, while others were surprisingly modern and far-sighted. As I read, I wondered how these words had shaped my grandmother and what detours they had taken to reach me.
The inner voice arises from the language of others.
External words condense into an inner voice.
One part of this is called the inner critic.
Based on these observations, I began to edit the material. I formed a monologue from the inner voice, extracting words and fragments of sentences without knowing exactly what I was looking for, and left their order unchanged. I didn’t add anything.
In some editions, I was unable to do this, so I turned to the images instead. I examined the magazine pages in the darkroom and condensed the front and back pages into a single image.
Anna Vovan, 2026
