[Recent Acquisitions]: Center for Curatorial Studies/Hessel Museum of Art and Osher Map Library and Smith Center of Cartographic Education add Queer Mechanix print to their permanent collections.

Made in collaboration with Island Press, Washington University in St. Louis, prints of The Queer Mechanix of the Lands Currently Referred to as the U.S. & Canada Before & During the 54th Year of the Stonewall Era have been acquired‍ Center for Curatorial Studies/Hessel Museum of Art and Osher Map Library and Smith Center of Cartographic Education at the University of Southern Maine. The work is two-sided print, screen print and photolithography, that presents the map on one side and archive of images, graphics, and printed matter from these shops on the other. The “Queer Mechanix” print is accompanied by a “mixtape” on cassette of reconfigured road trip anthems.

The project was initially sparked by a 1970s flyer made by the Women’s Car Repair Collective in St. Louis, Missouri. The collective used a signature calligraphy, inspired by a Lesbian magazine called Moonstorm, published by Tiamat Press. In 2018, artist Nat Pyper created the “Women’s Car Repair Collective” font inspired by the lettering on the collective’s ephemera. All of the text that appears in The Queer Mechanix project is written in “Women’s Car Repair Collective” font. Roberts uses this lettering to traverse time, connecting garages past, present, and future.

The Queer Mechanix project is affirming of collectivity, labor, and economic autonomy and confronts critical issues of historical and present-day struggle. Auto travel has become vital for people seeking abortions, other reproductive health services, and gender-affirming care. These auto mechanic shops become sites where travel, imagination, and fantasy materialize as networks for resilience.

For more information on acquiring a print from the edition, please contact the artist or Hales Gallery.