Interior Scroll (1975)

In probably her most infamous performance piece, Carolee Schneemann first performed a reading from her 1976 book “Cezanne, She Was A Great Painter” all while standing on a table wrapped only in a towel.  She then removed the cloth, stood naked on the table, and slowly removed a scroll from her vagina which she read out loud to the room.  The text used on the scroll was from a forgotten film project of Schneemann’s titled “Kitch’s Last Meal” (1973) – it is supposed to reflect a male critique of women in the art field.

The idea for the piece came from a dream in which Schneemann saw a woman, with her leg in the air, removing a scroll from her vagina that said “Interior Knowledge.”