You can relate to the feelings of loss of control, of shame or of guilt. Equally important, the project is designed to help people who are experiencing the eating disorders. If they see themselves reflected on the gallery walls or on the billboards, it breaks the isolation. We thought that using a Web site for this would be particularly helpful because if people are dealing with a shameful issue they have the opportunity to look at this in the privacy of their own home. The Web site provides information, a resource list and individual stories by the women and men who have struggled, or are still struggling, with eating problems.
Viewers can read the stories or share their own.
But receiving these e-mail missives and corresponding with the individuals has certainly been an emotional experience, too. I open my e-mail and can be in tears at 7 in the morning reading these. The cakes and the barbecues have an inviting quality, and it's actually the text that has the real emotional intensity. The exhibition and public displays have appeared in a number of venues in California and in Toledo, Ohio. The exhibition will travel next to the Soho Photography Gallery in New York for the month of September and then appear next year at San Francisco State University.