Gift

This first book by Mari Katayama is both a retrospective and a document of her evolution as a photographer and artist. Katayama, who was born with tibial hemimelia, a rare deficiency that prevented growth in the lower legs and caused a cleft left hand that resembles a crab’s pincers, amputated her legs at age nine. She explores the possibilities of her own body by creating situations that manipulate the way we see her and painting tattoo-like designs on her prosthetics. Intricately embroidered, pillow-like objects in the shape of limbs and mannequins combine with self-portrait photography to elucidate uncanny and alluring expressions of a DIY aesthetic and notions of beauty.