Designing Domesticity: Visual Techniques in Post-WW2 Domestic Advice Books

Domestic advice books, including etiquette, homemaking and home decoration titles, supply guidance about what we do in our homes. Old advice books do not provide evidence of actual practice but they do offer insights into shared ideals of domesticity. These books are valuable to the feminist project of examining women’s writing and experiences. The gallery illuminates persuasive strategies such as advice presented in the form of a signed letter; the recycling and adaptation of images; images subverting text; before and after comparisons and novelties such as text and images which emulate stitch, in reference to home crafts. It draws on an AHRC-supported research project which resulted in my book ‘Design at Home: Domestic Advice Books in Britain and the USA since 1945‘ http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415656696/