“At
the top of Blaeu’s map are nine roundels depicting harbours, spaces at which
the explorer might arrive beforeproceeding on a journey to an unmapped
interior, and which thus mark the threshold between known and unknown worlds.
Dixie substitutes these images of harbours with scenes derived from early
modern representations of labour and delivery, thus pointing to a concept of
birth as one in which the child undergoes passage between the mysterious and
atavistic interior of the mother’s body and the ‘civilized’ world.” (Schmahmann
2007, 31)
The
woodblocks in The Harbingers are cut into the shape of the roundels depicted
in the map, with writing which names the source of the fourteenth century image
carved into the sides. Each have a medical instrument embedded into the wood.
The medical objects interact with the scenario depicted, echoing the shape of
an elephant’s trunk, bow an arrow or the splayed legs of the mother who is
being operated on. The interior scenes which focus on the scenes of labour also
include reference to objects such as the sextant, used for navigation, or views
of ships out at sea. These references to discourses associated with expedition
and discovery underscore the exclusion of women from these historical events
and act to reinforce the gendered norms played out in the birth process.
