Boycott

Poetics. Art. In 1971, American conceptual artist Lee Lozano began her Boycott Piece, refusing to speak to women as a protest against patriarchy; in 1975, French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan stated, "La femme n'existe pas" to note the failure of the symbolic order. Vanessa Place's Boycott Project (of which BOYCOTT is part) takes iconic feminist texts and eliminates all reference to women and that which is exclusively female. For only through the sex that is one can one fully grasp the truth that one is not born, but rather becomes, one—l'on qui ne s'existe pas.

Vanessa Place was the first poet to perform as part of the Whitney Biennial; a content advisory was posted. She is the author of DIES: A SENTENCE (Les Figues Press), and a chapbook, Figure from The Gates of Paradise (Woodland Editions). Other work has appeared in Northwest Review,Contemporary Literary Criticism, and Five Fingers Review.