I grew up with the magazines of my mother's era: Good Housekeeping, Woman's Day, and Better Homes and Gardens. They featured crafty projects made from ordinary materials—simple decorations intended to enrich family life.

Then, as now, the image of ideal living exists in tension with the destructive forces required for humans to share the planet with one another and with nature.

Better Homes incorporates familiar imagery and homespun processes, including hand stitching and chine-collé gelatin leaf prints impressed onto coffee filters. The accordion structure unfolds in a micro-macro relationship between the natural and built worlds, emphasizing shared patterns across scale. While the title and imagery suggest domestic prosperity, these better homes are devoid of substance and life.

And the conjugal fence,
which forbids us to roam,
Looks lovely when decked
with the comforts of home.

-John Marriott