Archives and Amazons

The amazon warrior is iconic in lesbian feminist culture; she represents the strength and ferocity of women unbridled from patriarchy. In Greek Mythology amazons were fierce warrior women, skilled in battle and war craft. Lesbian writers, poets, and artists in the 70s and 80s, including Mary Daly, Audre Lorde and Monique Wittig claimed the amazon as a lesbian symbol to connect with a heritage of powerful women, loving women and living without men. She appears repeatedly in the archive: in the Raging Dyke zine, Amazon Quarterly, Harpies, Quines magazine , Flirt magazine, the regular Amazon column in Sappho magazine as well appearing in popular culture in the figures of Wonder Woman and Xena Warrior Princess.

In Archives and Amazons four digitally embroidered amazons ride across the quilt, based on the illustration used on The Lesbian Archive and Information Centre Newsletters. The same illustration of an amazon also appeared on the cover of Amazon Quarterly, an American Lesbian Arts publication from the 1970s, who’s editors included Audre Lorde.