The Bathroom Chronicles.

Friederike Schilbach on The Bathroom Chronicles:

»Last spring, I visited a friend in Italy when I found the inspiration for this book. She lives in Monopoli, a little city in Puglia by the sea, in an apartment that used to belong to a captain. My friend renovated it herself, in a very gentle and thoughtful manner. Where once stood the fireplace where pulpo was grilled now stands the bathroom. When you step into the shower, you can look up a meter-long shaft – and like in a James Turrell artwork, see the open sky way above. I realized this bathroom resembles my friend in character. Both are airy, open, minimalistic, beautiful.

Before I left, I asked my friend to send me a picture of her bathroom, for the memory. She did, and wrote a few lines about it. I went back to Berlin and asked some other friends to do the same. In the beginning, I thought of four or five. But day after day mails arrived, with photos and emotional stories about yucca palms, foreign travels, glamourous grandmothers and ex-boyfriends. Almost every one of these friends sent the task to another friend. Only a few months later, I had a collection of more than a hundred pictures of bathrooms and stories.«

The Bathroom Chronicles tells 100 bathroom stories from women around the world. Writers, painters, actors, waitresses, illustrators, all of them showing us a private space in their lives. Some of the women are well known, some of them are not. Some of them chaotic, others neatly organized. They are between the ages of 18 to 78, live in huge cities, small towns or in the countryside. They live and work in Munich, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Frankfurt, Berlin, Johannesburg, London, Lecce, Toronto, Bangkok, Leipzig and Tokyo. Each and every one of them is drawing a little personal portrait of their lives. Together, they draw a picture of the modern woman in our times and lives: unique, expressive, inspiring.


Contributors (selection):
Elif Batuman, Lily Brett, Simone Buchholz, Anika Decker, Lena Dunham, Theresia Enzensberger, Luca Gajdus, Haruka Hori, Sarah Illenberger, Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits, Erica Jong, Friederike Kempter, Philomene Magers, Lisa Rank, Mary Scherpe, Leanne Shapton, Barbara Vinken and many more