Exhibition

Jessica Campbell: Heterodoxy

October 6, 2023–August 11, 2024

A photograph of a dimly lit room with three wooden tables surrounded by chairs. The far wall is dark green with a large artwork resembling a red fireplace and framed picture. On the left wall is a lighter green tapestry with a busy floral pattern.
Jessica Campbell, in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia. Heterodoxy (Installation view), 2023. Photo credit: Carlos Avendaño.

The first rule of Heterodoxy is you do not talk about Heterodoxy. 

Jessica Campbell’s exhibition, lecture and discussion series explores the complex personal, political and professional relationships facilitated by the twentieth century secret feminist debate club named Heterodoxy. Produced in collaboration with the FWM Studio, this presentation takes the form of a gathering space—an interpretation of Polly’s Restaurant in Greenwich Village, NY, an early meeting place of the group—with artworks relating to the club and its members, outfitted in an immersive tufted rug environment. 

Operating between 1912–1940 in Greenwich Village, Heterodoxy gave its members a safe forum to confront issues relevant to their time and advocate for change with other passionate, thoughtful women. The club brought together members from diverse professional fields, political alignments and personal backgrounds to debate issues that remain remarkably relevant today such as voting access, the right to an abortion and access to birth control, sex education, universal child care, public health, and prison reform. No records were kept to allow members complete freedom to speak their minds.

As a visual artist and cartoonist, Campbell is interested in the ways in which combinations of seemingly disparate media, subject matter, and tone can act as tools for research and the production of knowledge. Her satirical textiles, drawings, and comics expose everyday experiences that reveal both current and historical misogyny. Campbell is particularly interested in how Heterodoxy’s strategy of interdisciplinary dialogue and the dissolve between the personal and professional could be implemented today as a way of generating creative solutions to vital social issues. 

Jessica Campbell: Heterodoxy invites the public to engage with these issues through an exhibition and lecture series—holding space for the kinds of radical conversations that were Heterodoxy’s raison d’être. 

Location

The Fabric Workshop and Museum
1214 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107

First Floor Gallery

Opening Reception

Thursday, October 5, 2023, 6:00–8:00 pm


Who were the Heterodites?

Birth Control Review, May 1919. Cartoon by Lou Rogers.

Established by Marie Jenney Howe in 1912, the club brought together members with only one criteria: that she “not be orthodox in her opinion.” Counted among dozens of “Heterodites,” as its members called themselves, was the physician Sara Josephine Baker, the first woman to receive a doctorate in public health, whose successful campaigns for preventative treatment among impoverished immigrant communities in New York significantly reduced infant mortality and blindness; suffragists Alice Kimball, Alison Turnbull Hopkins, Doris Stevens, and Paula Jakobi—all members of the Silent Sentinels who were famously arrested in 1917 while picketing at the White House for the right to vote; the cartoonist Lou Rogers, whose satirical works between 1912 and 1922 advanced the causes of women’s suffrage and access to birth control; and Beatrice M. Hinkle, whose practice in psychoanalysis promoted the self-actualization of women.

 

Book a Private Meeting in Heterodoxy

Jessica Campbell: Heterodoxy invites the public to engage with important issues of our time by holding space for the kinds of radical conversations that were Heterodoxy’s raison d’être.

During its run, the exhibition was available for private meetings on a first come, first served basis, Tuesday 10:00 am–6:00 pm and Wednesday–Friday, 10:00 am–12:00 pm, contingent upon space and staff availability.


Artists in This Exhibition


Press

Drawn to MoMA | Jessica Campbell’s Still Alive
Jessica Campbell, Museum of Modern Art, July 26, 2023

Review: Fabric Workshop and Museum presents Jessica Campbell: Heterodoxy
Pamela J. Forsythe, Broad Street Review, October 31, 2023

This February in Philly: The 40+ Biggest Events, Festivals & Exhibitions
Editors, Visit Philadelphia, January 12, 2024

Interview: Jessica Campbell
Natalie Verbadian, Curator Guide, January 31, 2024

Jessica Campbell’s Heterodoxy and American Proto-Feminism
Debra Thimmesch, FF2 Media, February 27, 2024

10 Exciting Things To Do in Philly This March
Leigh Chamberlain, Philadelphia Style Magazine, February 29, 2024

20 Things to Do for Women's History Month in Greater Philadelphia 2024
Editors, Visit Philadelphia, March 12, 2024

The All-Woman Secret Society That Paved the Way for Modern Feminism
Laura Kiniry, Smithsonian Magazine, March 25, 2024

Jessica Campbell: Heterodoxy
Corey Loftus, Sequitur | Boston University, April 16, 2024


Downloadable Media and Related Links

Download the Press ReleaseDownload the Press Release


About the Artist

Canadian, based in Toronto, Ontario

Jessica Campbell is a multidisciplinary artist and author working in comics, fibers, painting, drawing, and performance. Drawing on a wide range of influences, including science fiction, art world politics, and her evangelical upbringing, Campbell explores ways to reflect heterogeneity through a combination of disparate media, subjects, and tone. Whether through cartoony depictions or the use of unorthodox material, her work often wields humor as a device to help one come to terms with its darker subject matter.

Campbell is the author of three graphic novels, including RAVE (Drawn and Quarterly, 2022), Hot or Not: 20th Century Male Artists (Koyama Press, 2016) and XTC69 (Koyama Press, 2018). Her comics have appeared in The New YorkerHyperallergic and the Nib, among other publications. Her Chicago Works show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2018–2019) was reviewed in Art in AmericaHyperallergic, and Juxtapoz. Other solo and two-person exhibitions include Field Projects, New York (2019); Roots & Culture, Chicago (2015), and La Galerie Laroche/Joncas, Montreal (2012–2013). Her work has been included in group shows at the John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI (2022); The Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton (2022); Richard Heller, Los Angeles (2019); the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario (2019); the ICA, Baltimore (2018); Monique Meloche, Chicago (2017); and was included in Chicago Comics: 1960s to Now at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2021). She is represented by Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL.


About the Curator

Heterodoxy is organized by Chief Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs DJ Hellerman, and Project Technician Allen West in collaboration with the artist and the FWM Studio team. The project was initiated by the originating curator Karen Patterson, FWM’s former Director of Exhibitions.


Support

Major support for Jessica Campbell: Heterodoxy has been generously provided by The Coby Foundation, Ltd. This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

In-kind support has been provided by Tuft the World.

Major support of FWM is provided by the Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud Foundation. FWM receives state art funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Additional support is provided by Agnes Gund and the Board of Directors and Members of The Fabric Workshop and Museum.


Past Related Events

Talk + Trunk Show
Sustaining Traditions of Block Printing with Padmini Govind
November 17, 2023, 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm

Master Class
Block Printing Workshop with Padmini Govind
November 18, 2023, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Workshop
Patterns for a New Year
January 4, 2024, 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Workshop
Add a Pocket
February 7, 2024, 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Artist + Author Talk
Unpacking Heterodoxy: Joanna Scutts in conversation with Jessica Campbell
March 22, 2024, 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm

Master Class
The Funny Books with Jessica Campbell
March 23, 2024, 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Lecture + Workshop
Tuft the World: Rug Tufting with Tim Eads and Tiernan Alexander
March 23, 2024, 3:00 pm to 5:30 pm

FWM Open House
International Museum Day
May 18, 2024, 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Community Event
Zine Swap
May 3, 2024, 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm