Diana Schmertz

But It Does Happen… (book)
168 laser cut watercolor prints on paper in bound book, 14 x 11 x 4 inches ©2025

But It Does Happen… deals with the devastating aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. As new laws have taken effect, children and adults are being raped, involuntarily getting pregnant, and forced to carry to term.. FBI statistics from 2022, the year of the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling, estimate that 167 females and one 'unknown' person were raped every day in America. 

To give weight to this data, I painted 168 portraits of girls, women, and people with uteruses in a mugshot format to convey how rape victims are being criminalized for seeking to terminate a forced pregnancy.  Each victim looks straight ahead, confronting the viewer while also seeking understanding. Their ages correspond with the FBI statistics, approximately half of which are fertile children. I laser cut the Dobbs ruling directly into their faces. By burning away the negative space between the letters, the paper has become a lattice of text that people can read while simultaneously being forced to acknowledge the victims of this decision. 

I bound these portraits together into a book which mimics officially published Supreme Court Cases while also referencing a police identification blotter. As one reads the text they cannot ignore the victims affected by this ruling.  The cut out spaces in each face gives you a glimpse of the other faces behind it making each victim lose their individual identity.  The back of each portrait is pure white and looks like lace, representing the purity standard held over females.