Jo Spence Memorial Archive
Jo Spence (British, 1934−1992) was a pivotal figure in the establishment of a post-modern feminist discourse who challenged the dominance of photography-as-high-art in the context of the museum and the art market. Working in London in the 1970s and 1980s as a community-based activist using photography and text as tools for social change, Spence contested the formalist preoccupations of mainstream photographic practice and emphasized a return to documentary. Among her diverse collaborative projects, she is known for politicized self-representations of her struggle with breast cancer, in which she refuses to passively accept the conventions of medical authority and asserts the validity of alternative therapies. In addition to more than 100 largescale prints, The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre) holds a broad range of Spence’s research and preparatory materials, writings and correspondence, videotaped interviews, and other ephemera. The Jo Spence Memorial Archive was donated to The Image Centre by the artist’s long-time partner and collaborator, Terry Dennett.

Terry Dennett (British, 1938–2018), [Untitled], 1973–1975, gelatin silver contact print. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.2000:0002)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992) and Terry Dennett (British, 1938–2018), shooting sequence for The Highest Product of Capitalism (After John Heartfield), 1979, from Remodelling Photo History (The History Lesson), 1981–82, gelatin silver contact print. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.2000:0001)

Faces Group, [Lyn], 1975–1977, workbook with gelatin silver prints and masks. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.2000:0003)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992) and Terry Dennett (British, 1938–2018), from Remodelling Photo History (The History Lesson), 1981–1982, gelatin silver print. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.2017:0001)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992) and Terry Dennett (British, 1938–2018), from Remodelling Photo History (The History Lesson), 1981–1982, gelatin silver print. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.2017:0002)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992) and Terry Dennett (British, 1938–2018), from Remodelling Photo History (The History Lesson), 1981–1982, gelatin silver print. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.2017:0003)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992) and Terry Dennett (British, 1938–2018), from Remodelling Photo History (The History Lesson), 1981–1982, gelatin silver print. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.2017:0004)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992), [My Body/Mind Journal], 1989, notebook with chromogenic prints. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.3000:0001)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992), [My Body/Mind Journal], 1989, notebook with chromogenic prints. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.3000:0001)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992), [Scrapbook], ca. 1987, pastel drawing. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.3000:0002)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992), [Work with Barbies], 1982–1983, colour transparencies. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.3000:0003)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992) in collaboration with Rosy Martin, Photo Therapy: Late Mother, 1986-88, chromogenic colour print. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.3001:0001)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992) in collaboration with Rosy Martin, Photo Therapy: Work on Emotional Eating, 1984, printed 1994, chromogenic colour print. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.5001:0001)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992) in collaboration with Rosy Martin, from Libido Uprising, 1989, printed 1994, chromogenic colour print. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.5001:0002)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992) in collaboration with Rosy Martin, Photo Therapy: Early Mother, 1986–1988, printed 1994, chromogenic colour print. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.5001:0003)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992), [Fairy God Mother and business card], 1984–1989, printed 1994, chromogenic colour print. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.5001:0004)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992) in collaboration with Rosy Martin, from Libido Uprising, 1989, printed 1994, chromogenic colour print. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.5002:0001)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992) in collaboration with Terry Dennett, [Jo Spence wearing a helmet], 1982, printed 1994, from The Picture of Health?, 1982–1986, chromogenic colour print. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.5002:0002)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992) in collaboration with Rosy Martin, Infantilization, 1984, printed 2010, from The Picture of Health?, 1982–1986, inkjet print. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2010.5003:0001)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992) and Terry Dennett (British, 1938–2018), from Gypsies and Travellers, 1974, gelatin silver print. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2015.2001:0001)

Jo Spence (British, 1934–1992) and Terry Dennett (British, 1938–2018), from Gypsies and Travellers, 1974, gelatin silver print. Jo Spence Memorial Archive, The Image Centre (AG03.2015.2001:0002)