Delphine Bedel’s lecture What’s in a Word? Notes on Feminist Publishing will focus on the emergence of the word “feminism” in the 19th century and its relationship to publishing. With the invention of the Gutenberg press in 1450, publishing became a space of exclusion, because, with a few exceptions, women were not allowed to be printers, publishers or librarians. In France, this situation changed with the 1881 law on the freedom of the press that saw the emergence of both the word feminism and a feminist press. Bedel examines how the word feminism had already began circulating in the 1820s, and how conflicting definitions co-existed in the fields of medicine, art and literature for nearly a century. 

Delphine Bedel is a media artist, researcher and publisher, founder of Meta/Books and co-founder and Chair of Engagement Arts NL.

What’s in a Word? Notes on Feminist Publishing is part of the public programme of the IMPAKT Exhibition The Curse of Smooth Operations, on view at Steenweg 26 (till 30 December 2022) and IMPAKT [Centre for Media Culture] (till 8 January 2023).

Read more about the exhibition