3,350 gr.: Valeria Cherchi brings photography, testimony and critical reflection into dialogue with obstetric violence

Italian artist Valeria Cherchi has published 3,350 gr. Photographs and Letters on Obstetric Violence, a bilingual Italian-English volume that explores obstetric violence through photography, personal and collective testimony, archival documentation and critical reflection.

Published and distributed by Mousse in 2026, the book marks the final phase of approximately seven years of research by Cherchi. The project begins with a deeply personal family history and progressively expands into an investigation of obstetric violence as an individual, social and institutional phenomenon.

Although 3,350 gr. is not an IPOV publication or an activity developed within the IPOV – RESPECTFUL CARE project, it has a clear connection with several of the project’s fields of interest. In particular, Patrizia Quattrocchi, Principal Investigator of IPOV – RESPECTFUL CARE, contributes one of the critical texts included in the volume. IPOV’s official website identifies Quattrocchi as the project’s Principal Investigator and Scientific Coordinator.

The publication therefore offers an opportunity to establish a dialogue between IPOV’s research on obstetric violence and an independent artistic project concerned with visibility, testimony, memory, institutional power and the capacity of art to question experiences and forms of harm that have frequently remained marginalised or insufficiently recognised.

From a family history to a wider investigation of obstetric violence

The title 3,350 gr. refers directly to the 3,350 grams that Valeria Cherchi’s older sister weighed at birth.

Cherchi grew up seeing her own name engraved on the gravestone of her namesake older sister, born on 19 October 1980 and deceased on 17 April 1981, only six months later. According to the curatorial account included in the publication, it was in 2019 that Cherchi’s mother spoke for the first time about the circumstances surrounding the child’s death. The girl had been declared healthy at birth, and the family’s subsequent reconstruction of events led Cherchi to begin investigating an experience that she gradually connected with the broader phenomenon of obstetric violence.

The personal history thus becomes the starting point rather than the endpoint of the project.

Cherchi moves from an individual family experience towards a broader investigation in which personal memory is placed alongside documentary research and the experiences of other people. The methodology is deliberately non-linear, multimedia and interdisciplinary, combining heterogeneous materials including archival documents, photographs and texts. Rather than treating individual images as autonomous works, Cherchi constructs multivocal narratives in which personal memory, documentary research and testimony intersect.

This movement from private experience towards collective reflection is central to 3,350 gr.. The artist’s personal history becomes a point of entry into questions concerning violence, healthcare, gender, institutional practices, memory and recognition.

Twelve letters addressed to “V.”

At the heart of the volume are Cherchi’s photographs and a series of twelve letters addressed to “V.”, the artist’s sister.

According to MAN – Museo d’Arte della Provincia di Nuoro, the letters bring together different voices, including mothers, fathers, doulas and relatives of victims, constructing a collective narrative around experiences related to obstetric violence.

The preview of the book makes this epistolary structure visible. Several sections begin simply with “Dear V.” / “Cara V.”, before introducing different experiences, memories and perspectives.

Rather than presenting testimony as an isolated case history, the letters form part of a wider artistic structure in which memories, documentary traces, family histories and personal experiences coexist.

This multivocal approach is one of the defining elements of the publication. Cherchi does not attempt to create a single authoritative account of obstetric violence. Instead, different forms of knowledge and experience are placed in relation with one another.

Photography without turning pain into spectacle

A fundamental aspect of the project is its approach to the representation of suffering.

3,350 gr. explicitly rejects using photography to turn pain into spectacle. The publication instead presents the photographic practice as a means of questioning the systems of power and knowledge that can contribute to perpetuating forms of violence and making certain experiences difficult to recognise.

By recentring lived experiences and the narrative gaps surrounding obstetric violence, Cherchi proposes an artistic practice concerned with responsibility, change and the creation of spaces in which marginalised voices can be heard.

The role of photography is therefore not merely illustrative.

Images are placed alongside letters, archival materials, family photographs, medical and administrative documents and critical texts. The preview of the publication shows precisely this coexistence: personal photographs appear together with medical records, childhood documents and other archival traces associated with the family history and Cherchi’s research.

In this context, the archive itself becomes part of the narrative. Institutional documents record particular aspects of a life or a medical history; family photographs preserve others; testimony introduces lived experience and retrospective interpretation. Cherchi brings these forms of evidence together rather than establishing a hierarchy between them.

A publication conceived as an intimate space of exchange

The physical design of the book is also connected to the conceptual approach of the project.

3,350 gr. has a compact format of 11.5 × 16 cm, deliberately recalling the intimate scale of a diary.

The publication itself describes this format as an invitation to establish a direct relationship with the reader. The book is conceived not simply as an object to be contemplated or leafed through, but as a moment of exchange in which aesthetic and ethical dimensions converge.

The final publication is described as a form of resistance in which suffering can be transformed into an act of care. This idea helps explain why 3,350 gr. combines so many different forms of material: photography, testimony, archives and critical analysis are not separate components but parts of the same attempt to create a space for listening, recognition and reflection.

Three critical perspectives accompanying the artistic work

The bilingual volume is accompanied by critical contributions that expand the artistic research and situate obstetric violence within broader social, relational, cultural, institutional and legal frameworks.

The publication credits texts by Elisabetta Masala, Anna Balogi and Patrizia Quattrocchi, alongside Cherchi’s photographs and letters.

Elisabetta Masala: reconstructing the genesis of the project

A curatorial essay by Elisabetta Masala reconstructs the origins and development of Cherchi’s research, providing the framework through which the reader can understand how a personal family history developed into a complex artistic investigation.

Masala also played a significant role throughout the development of the publication. In the acknowledgements, Cherchi describes her contribution as fundamental to the book, highlighting her curatorial expertise and her sensitivity towards both Cherchi’s personal story and the other narratives brought together in the volume.

Anna Balogi: a sociological and relational perspective

Anna Balogi contributes the chapter:

Witnessing Obstetric Violence: A Sociologist and Doula’s Perspective

Italian:

Testimoniare la violenza ostetrica: una prospettiva da sociologa e doula

The text addresses obstetric violence through a social and relational perspective.

Balogi’s contribution describes obstetric violence as encompassing behaviours, forms of abuse, omissions and disrespectful practices capable of causing physical, verbal or emotional harm and restricting the autonomous exercise of reproductive rights.

The chapter discusses practices including excessive intervention, procedures not adequately supported by scientific evidence, violations of privacy and dignity, lack of informed consent and appropriate support, and offensive or discriminatory attitudes.

Importantly, Balogi also examines the institutional dimension of obstetric violence. The text explains how protocols, automatic procedures and organisational models may normalise harmful practices to such an extent that the professionals involved may not themselves recognise them as forms of violence. In this perspective, obstetric violence does not necessarily depend on intentional individual behaviour but may also have structural roots within healthcare systems and prevailing models of care.

Patrizia Quattrocchi: recognising a violence that remains too invisible

Patrizia Quattrocchi, Principal Investigator of IPOV – RESPECTFUL CARE, contributes:

The Invisible Harm: Recognising and Combating Obstetric Violence

Italian:

Riconoscere e combattere la violenza ostetrica: una violenza ancora troppo invisibile

The contribution explores obstetric violence by examining its social implications, legal frameworks, and the cultural and institutional mechanisms that make its recognition increasingly urgent.

The chapter establishes the most direct connection between 3,350 gr. and IPOV – RESPECTFUL CARE.

This connection should nevertheless be understood precisely: the volume is an independent publication by Valeria Cherchi and not an IPOV output. Quattrocchi’s participation creates a point of intersection between the artistic project and the scientific work being developed around obstetric violence within IPOV, while preserving the independence and specific history of Cherchi’s project.

Art, testimony and the challenge of making violence visible

One of the central questions linking 3,350 gr. with the broader research interests surrounding IPOV is the problem of visibility.

Obstetric violence can remain insufficiently recognised not only because individual experiences are not heard, but also because certain practices may become normalised within social, cultural and institutional environments.

Cherchi approaches this question through artistic practice.

Rather than simply illustrating obstetric violence, the project investigates how stories are narrated, which experiences are remembered, what remains undocumented or unspoken, and how official documents can interact with personal testimony and memory.

The curatorial framing describes Cherchi’s practice as concerned with socially significant issues that are frequently pushed to the margins of public discourse. Her work uses photography as a relational, political and transformative instrument, investigating systems of power and constructing counter-narratives capable of restoring visibility to systematically silenced phenomena.

This perspective makes 3,350 gr. particularly relevant to discussions about the possible contribution of art to the recognition of obstetric violence.

Art does not replace legal, clinical, anthropological or sociological analysis. In this publication, it enters into dialogue with those forms of knowledge.

Photography can work alongside testimony.

Personal memory can be confronted with archival documentation.

Critical analysis can help situate individual experiences within wider structures.

The result is a space in which the personal, social and institutional dimensions of obstetric violence can be considered together.

Valeria Cherchi and an artistic practice focused on the “unspoken”

Valeria Cherchi was born and raised in Sardinia, Italy, and works with images and text.

Her non-linear practice focuses on the meaning of the “unspoken”, with particular attention to the use of images and words to illuminate lesser-known stories connected with a lack of social justice. She combines photography, research journals, archival materials and official narratives to construct multivocal chronicles examining social and political phenomena and their possible disappearance from historical consciousness.

Cherchi received the Premio Marco Bastianelli for Best Italian Photography Book in 2021 and Strategia Fotografia grants in 2020 and 2024. Her work has been exhibited in a range of international museums, galleries and cultural institutions, and she has given lectures and talks at universities, academies and photography institutions.

With 3,350 gr., this wider artistic interest in hidden histories, social justice and the politics of representation is applied to obstetric violence through a research process in which the artist’s own family history becomes a starting point for collective enquiry.

Supported by Strategia Fotografia 2025

3,350 gr. Photographs and Letters on Obstetric Violence was selected as one of the awardees of Strategia Fotografia 2025. The project is supported by Strategia Fotografia 2025, promoted by the Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea – Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture, with MAN – Museo d’Arte della Provincia di Nuoro involved in the project.

The publication itself confirms the support of Strategia Fotografia 2025 and the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity.

Cherchi also acknowledges MAN – Museo d’Arte della Provincia di Nuoro, Mousse Publishing and the many people and organisations who contributed to and accompanied the research process.

An independent project in dialogue with IPOV – RESPECTFUL CARE

For IPOV – RESPECTFUL CARE, 3,350 gr. offers an important opportunity to highlight how reflection on obstetric violence is also developing beyond conventional academic, legal and healthcare contexts.

The volume is not an IPOV publication, but its subject matter and Patrizia Quattrocchi’s contribution establish a meaningful connection with questions addressed by the project.

In particular, 3,350 gr. contributes to reflection on:

• how obstetric violence is narrated and recognised;
• how lived experiences can be made visible without reducing them to spectacle;
• how cultural and institutional mechanisms can contribute to the normalisation or invisibility of harm;
• the relationship between individual experiences and structural forms of inequality;
• the role of memory, testimony and archives;
• and the potential of artistic practices to open spaces for listening, critical reflection and transformation.

Cherchi’s work demonstrates that making obstetric violence visible is not simply a matter of producing more representations of suffering. It also requires questioning how experiences are represented, whose voices are heard, which forms of knowledge are legitimised and which narratives remain absent.

In that sense, 3,350 gr. creates a productive space of dialogue between artistic research and the wider interdisciplinary work being carried out around obstetric violence.

Publication information

Title: 3,350 gr. Photographs and Letters on Obstetric Violence
Artist: Valeria Cherchi
Year: 2026
Publisher and distributor: Mousse
Languages: Italian / English
Format: Softcover, 11.5 × 16 cm
Length: 206 pages
Photographs and letters: Valeria Cherchi
Critical contributions: Elisabetta Masala, Anna Balogi and Patrizia Quattrocchi
Design: Gloria Favaro / Mousse
First edition: 600 copies
ISBN: 978-88-6749-740-9

For press information, interviews and images, the press sheet provided by the artist lists Valeria Cherchi as the contact and directs editors to her updated interviews and features page.

Editorial note: 3,350 gr. Photographs and Letters on Obstetric Violence is an independent project by Valeria Cherchi. It is not an official publication or output of IPOV – RESPECTFUL CARE. Its inclusion in IPOV communication is based on its close thematic relevance to the project’s areas of research and on the contribution to the volume by IPOV Principal Investigator Patrizia Quattrocchi.

Reference links

1. Valeria Cherchi: 3,350 gr. Photographs and Letters on Obstetric Violence — Mousse Publishing
   Official publisher page for the 2026 book. It provides the main bibliographic and publication details for the volume, including publisher, format and edition information.
   URL: https://www.moussemagazine.it/shop/valeria-cherchi-3350-gr-photographs-and-letters-on-obstetric-violence-book-2026/
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2. Valeria Cherchi — 3,350 gr. Photographs and Letters on Obstetric Violence
   Official project page on Valeria Cherchi’s website. It presents the project as a seven-year investigation developed between 2019 and 2026 and lists the photographs and letters by Cherchi, the texts by Anna Balogi, Elisabetta Masala and Patrizia Quattrocchi, as well as the book’s technical details.
   URL: https://www.valeriacherchi.com/portfolio_cat/projects/
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3. MAN – 3,350 gr. Photographs and Letters on Obstetric Violence, the new book by Valeria Cherchi published by Mousse Publishing
   Official English-language presentation by MAN – Museo d’Arte della Provincia di Nuoro. This is one of the most useful reference sources for the press release: it explains the origin of the project, the twelve letters addressed to “V.”, the contributions by Elisabetta Masala, Anna Balogi and Patrizia Quattrocchi, and the relationship between the book’s aesthetic and ethical dimensions.
   URL: https://www.museoman.it/en/2026/05/21/3350-gr-photographs-and-letters-on-obstetric-violence-the-new-book-by-valeria-cherchi-published-by-mousse-publishing/
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4. MAN – Esce 3,350 gr. Photographs and Letters on Obstetric Violence, il nuovo libro di Valeria Cherchi edito da Mousse Publishing
   Official Italian-language version of MAN’s presentation. It provides the original Italian titles of Anna Balogi’s and Patrizia Quattrocchi’s contributions and describes Quattrocchi’s chapter as addressing the social implications, legal references, and cultural and institutional mechanisms surrounding the recognition of obstetric violence.
   URL: https://www.museoman.it/2026/05/21/esce-3350-gr-photographs-and-letters-on-obstetric-violence-il-nuovo-libro-di-valeria-cherchi-edito-da-mousse-publishing/
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5. MAN – Strategia Fotografia 2025: Valeria Cherchi, 3350 gr. Photographs and Letters on Obstetric Violence
   Official MAN page presenting the project as one of the awardees of Strategia Fotografia 2025. It situates Cherchi’s work within contemporary photography, activism, memory and research on obstetric and gynaecological violence.
   URL: https://www.museoman.it/en/2025/12/09/strategia-fotografia-2025/
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6. Italian Ministry of Culture — Strategia Fotografia 2025: Winners
   Official page of the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture listing the projects selected under Strategia Fotografia 2025. It provides the institutional context for the public programme supporting the project.
   URL: https://creativitacontemporanea.cultura.gov.it/strategia-fotografia-2025-vincitori/
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7. Italian Ministry of Culture — Strategia Fotografia 2025
   Official information page for the fifth edition of Strategia Fotografia, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity. It explains the objectives and institutional framework of the programme supporting Italian photographic practice and its national and international development.
   URL: https://creativitacontemporanea.cultura.gov.it/strategia-fotografia-2025/
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8. Valeria Cherchi — Biography, exhibitions, publications and grants
   Official biographical page of the artist. It documents Cherchi’s artistic career, exhibitions, publications and awards, including the 2025 Strategia Fotografia Grant with MAN for 3,350 gr.
   URL: https://www.valeriacherchi.com/information/
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9. MAN – Book Launch: Valeria Cherchi
   Official announcement of the July 2026 presentation of 3,350 gr. at MAN in Nuoro. It describes the book as an investigation combining personal memory, archival documentation and international testimonies to examine the social, cultural and institutional dimensions of obstetric violence.
   URL: https://www.museoman.it/en/2026/06/25/book-launch-valeria-cherchi/
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10. IPOV – RESPECTFUL CARE: About Us
    Official IPOV project page presenting the international research team, including Patrizia Quattrocchi of the University of Udine. This source provides the institutional context for her participation in the research network connected with IPOV – RESPECTFUL CARE.
    URL: https://respectfulcare.eu/about-us/