From Liz Saleson’s interview with Frances F. Denny for the Baxter Street Camera Club:
LS: Your title comes from a piece of embroidery?
FFD: “Let Virtue Be a Guide to Thee” was the title of a 1982 Rhode Island Historical Society exhibition of colonial girls’ embroidery samplers. I discovered the catalog in a library and I began thinking about this word “virtue.” I feel like is not a commonly used word so much anymore.
LS: I hear it used ironically.
FFD: Right, exactly, because, historically it’s about chasteness, the preservation of virginity. But I wonder, what does it mean to live a moral life as a woman today?
Browse the series “Let Virtue Be Your Guide” at ClampArt
Browse all of Frances F. Denny’s work at ClampArt