In 2024 I began to notice that my books were taking on a life of their own. I would give a book to a friend and suddenly, unbeknownst to me, it would travel and land in someone else’s hands. Oftentimes, in the hands of people I wouldn’t even know.

Feminist literature would travel the fastest. As if all of my girlfriends wanted (or needed) to share their pain and anger with other women, and transform these feelings into shared sisterhood – that’s how a small project called “The Sisterhood of Travelling Feminist Literature” came about.

The name of the project is an homage to the cult classic "The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants" and at the same time inspired by an Estonian film "Smoke Sauna Sisterhood". In both films, the sense of sisterhood is manifested through a material object - be it a pair of second-hand jeans or the almost folkloric placement of smoke saunas in Estonian culture. In the latter smoke saunas have given women a space to talk about each other's lives without a filter, sharing one's experiences and differences in experiencing womanhood with unabashed honesty.  This is something that this project can only strive to be. While a book cannot be and does not offer a physical place, it still tells a story about a person who has read it through highlighted sections or turned corners. Books are meant to be interacted with – to live their own lives and to archive the lives of people who, even if temporarily, owned them. 

This project and the project's logo take the shape of an ex libris. Traditionally, an ex libris is a personal stamp (including a name, initials or an image) placed on the front cover of a book, literally meaning 'from the library of [someone]'.It is static and individualistic. Contrary to tradition, the ex-libris of this project is meant to signify that books must continue to travel from one person to another - ‘from the library of each and every woman whose life particular book has reached’. Books we own and have read are most likely to never be picked up again. So why not give them a second, third, fourth,... life? At the same time, the continuous markings of different women through whose hands the book has passed are intended to create a connection, a sisterhood, if you will. The art for ex libris itself was created by a Lithuanian artist Upė Lučiūna (@_balandos_).

Beyond feminist discourse, this project also comes from sheer banality – it is nice to have a book that already has a signature. It makes you feel as if you are a part of something bigger than just yourself. It is a bit kitschy - but what is not?