The Bathroom Chronicles

One hundred creative, intelligent, and interesting women--some well-known, some not--reveal their inner selves through candid, tender, and often humorous snapshots--both visual and textual--of a single object or corner of their bathroom. For many women, the bathroom is the most intimate of spaces. It is the place where we encounter ourselves in the mirror each morning and every night-brushing our teeth, applying make-up, fixing our hair, getting ready to face the day, or recede from it. The Bathroom Chronicles is a beautiful, chic, touching, and deeply feminine collection of photos and accompanying short stories (sometimes no more than a sentence or two) by women about their private spaces and most cherished possessions. Lena Dunham reveals the corner by the sink where she keeps her favorite pieces of jewelry, as well as her birth control. Erica Jong snaps her poodles and insists that they love her powder room and to "fluff up their hair" in front of the mirrors. Roz Chast reflects on a shelf in the corner that she purchased from a second-hand store. It's decorated with birds, because she loves birds, and a tiny emu that was given to her by a friend when she was in Australia. Like the bathrooms themselves each of these stories and images is unique--open, private, minimalistic, messy, and beautiful.