The work of Annette Messager (b. 1943, Berck) explores the subjects of the body, rituals and femininity, often mixing autobiographical details with fictional narratives. Mes Ouvrages de Broderies was created in the same year as the seminal work, Mes Vœux. Inspired by the Christian tradition of Ex-voto paintings, Mes Vœux comprises hundreds of framed photographs, each presenting a small part of a human body, that are suspended on strings in a dense constellation. Mes ouvrages de Broderies bears a close affinity to this work, both in terms of its serial composition and the fragmention of the body via photography. The ‘objective’ observations of the camera are combined with the highly subjective expression of hand-embroidered writing, invoking a distinctly feminist reference to domestic labour that resonates with the work the artist produced earlier in her career.