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Scenes of rest have long been a generative motif for women artists, helping them to articulate complex and differing experiences of family, health and work. This exhibition brings together a century of works across a variety of mediums: paintings, prints and textiles, including a collaborative quilt. In their own unique way, all offer a counterpoint to the familiar artistic genre of the reclining nude, a figure that is almost always a woman. In the hands of historic male artists, such as Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus (c.1510), the pose carries associations and projections of idealised sensuality and passivity. In this exhibition, we see work made by women artists on their own terms.    

Taking its name from one of the three prints on display by wood engraver and painter Gwen Raverat (1885–1957), a Cambridge artist for whom the sleeping subject became an enduring theme, The Sleepers surveys works by 12 artists to explore why sleeping, dreaming and resting have been depicted by women artists. It also asks us to consider who has access to these vital moments of relief and respite. 

For those with disabilities or chronic illnesses, rest can be a complicated and sometimes inaccessible state. In 2022, the YouGov Sleep Study showed that 60% of women aged 25 to 59 say they do not get enough sleep. In 2023, a study by psychologists at Nottingham Trent University found people living in deprived areas have poorer sleep quality than those in affluent areas, and studies involving Black people reported the worst sleep overall. This exhibition and its accompanying programme aims to unpack the differing relationships between women and rest, and consider how they inform our understandings of time, labour and care.     

Curated by Laura Moseley with curatorial support from Harriet Loffler. Exhibition design by Sally Coleman. 

This exhibition was generously supported by East Anglia Art Fund, Cambridge Arts Society and Backstitch Cambridge.

Artists: Joke Amusan, Helen Cammock, Ann Dowker, Tracey Emin, Laura Footes, Bambou Gili, Kate Montgomery, Celia Paul, Jenny Polak, Gwen Raverat, Lucy Raverat and Nancy Willis.

Community Quilt

This exhibition features a community quilt made together with the Cambridge Women’s Resource Centre (CWRC) and artist Cait Moreton-Lisle, with additional contributions from Sew Positive. Over a period of 6 months, the Art Group at the CWRC worked with exhibition curator Laura Moseley and local quilter Cait Moreton-Lisle in a series of conversational workshops to explore their relationship to rest and sleep, whilst working on a square of fabric to capture their creative responses. Quilts are tangible symbols of care and commonly associated with domestic spaces of rest but also contain a history of being used to empower marginalised groups. This quilt is also inspired by Fine Cell Work, who worked with a group of incarcerated men to make The Sleep Quilt in 2017.

The CWRC has offered educational courses, creative group activities and individual support to the women of Cambridge for over 40 years. They help women with a range of issues, including housing, education, finding work, health and wellbeing and coping with life on a low income. They also support women who have been involved with the criminal justice system, victims of domestic abuse and refugee support. Following this exhibition, this quilt will return to the Centre, where it can be regularly enjoyed and admired by the women who helped create it.

Access

Read our Access page to find out more about our spaces. Please get in touch if you have any further queries or requirements: womensart@murrayedwards.cam.ac.uk or call the Porter's Lodge at +44 (0)1223 762100.