Guest Editor
Laura Salvatore
A Review of Frida (2022)
by Anne Whitehouse
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As Anne Whitehouse’s body of work continues to grow, we can see how her poetry collections continue to be in conversation with each other. This remains true in Frida and Adrienne Fidelin Restored—her two most recent chapbooks from Ethel Zine, a small but mighty publication that specializes in intricately handmade and hand-bound chapbooks and mini-books. Each of these chapbooks tell the stories of their subjects with care and creative mysticism woven through, building on the world she has already begun unraveling in her other works.
While Frida Kahlo and Adrienne Fidelin, the subjects of the chapbooks, had different experiences sculpted by their location, race, gender representation, and more, the themes of femininity and gender shaped their experiences in the art world. While Frida was leaning into her masculinity through fashion and identity choices, Adrienne Fidelin was facing extreme scrutiny and over-sexualization because of her race, body and chosen career as a model and dancer. With narratives being controlled by white male artists deciding what surrealism was, Kahlo and Fidelin often had to rely on the male artists to give them credibility, despite their own levels of natural talent that (it could be argued) exceeded the talent of their male counterparts. Whitehouse explores Frida’s dependence on Diego which went further than emotional—he was tied to her and credited her in the art world.
From the start of Frida, Whitehouse delves into gender– how Frida was educated like “a favored son” and raised in a more masculine way than her sisters:
Next-to-youngest Frida was her father’s favorite,
dressed as a boy in family portraits
next to her more conventional sisters
Whitehouse paints the picture of Kahlo’s family with surrealist brushstrokes, reminiscent of the way Isabelle Allende weaves together the narrative of the Trueba family in House of Spirits. She gives us a clear portrait of the young artist before she became an iconic figure. While audiences now can clearly picture the Frida of fame with unibrow, bejeweled from head to toe, colorful fabrics, and elaborate design, Whitehouse helps us build to how this version of Frida was created.
Whitehouse’s writing weaves through Frida’s story seamlessly, her writing coloring the story like one of Frida’s paintings. One moment that could have been lifted from a surrealist painting is a scene in which she writes
All aspects of her life
Frida transformed into art.
In her proliferating images,
… she created visions of enchantment.
If Frida is creating visions of enchantment through painting then Whitehouse is doing the same through poetry.
About the reviewer:
Laura Salvatore is a poet living in Queens, New York. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at The City College of New York. Her work has been featured in Angel City Review, Quail Bell Magazine, Pith Magazine, and Apricity Magazine.
About Anne Whitehouse: Anne Whitehouse’s poetry collections include Blessings and Curses, The Refrain, Meteor Shower, Outside from the Inside, and Steady. Her poetry chapbooks include Surrealist Muse (about Leonora Carrington), Escaping Lee Miller, Frida, Being Ruth Asawa, and Adrienne Fidelin Restored. Three excerpts from Anne Whitehouse’s long work on Edgar Allen Poe are available from Open: Journal of Arts & Letters Buttonhook Press Chapbook series: Edgar Allan The Imp of the Perverse: Edgar Allan Poe’s Misplaced Youth and Soldier, Sailor: Edgar Allan Poe and His Brother Henry, and most recently Edgar Allen Poe: A Gentleman’s Education. Whitehouse is the author of a novel, Fall Love.
Featured Image: Frida (AI-assisted digital image by O:JA&L staff creative. 2025. Public domain via Midjourney AI.
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