Monoprint outline of a strong dress, in blue ink on white paper. This plainly designed dress is quite fitted to the body and belted at the waist. The arms are extra long with thick string like material, that loosely attaches the arms together at the ends.

Strong dresses were used in insane asylums, to stop female patients from harming themselves and others. Similar to straight jackets, the dresses had extra long sleeves with belts or ties at the end. These long sleaves would wrap the patients arms around their body and be secured tightly.

My interest in how female patients were treated in insane asylums, drew me to focus on strong dresses, for my research. There were many methods of control used in treating the mentally ill. I see the strong dress as a powerful symbol of female control.

For my final artwork, for the exhition at the Mental Health Museum, I am making a strong dress. The dress will actually be a life size drawing of a dress, using monoprinting onto paper. The idea is to make a fake artifact, that was made by an anonymous female patient and hidden.

Patients were not allowed personal belongs or their own clothes, and were given whatever clothing was available. So a patient secretly making and hiding this object, would have given her a sense of autonomy and empowerment. The dress was made in protest at being controlled by being forced to wear the strong dress.