The Process of Aging
Thompson Library Rare Books and Manuscripts Library,
N7433.4.T23 P76 1974

“Half of my life gone, this is the point of reaching maturity, I guess. The other half will be the way to old age and death.”  

The Process of Aging: A Fragment of an Ongoing Thorough Self-Analysis and Description to be Completed by the End of my Life is a type-written artist's book by Athena Tacha. This is the first fragment recorded at age 38, but she recounts the aging process beginning as a teenager. It is a close, honest catalogue of the physical changes brought on by aging and her reactions to them, from the time she started trying to prevent aging as a teen using egg yolks to the shock at 38 of spotting some white hairs. She draws conclusions for specific signs of aging, such as the long hours of standing at work causing the visible veins in her legs, and recounts the warning her aunt gave her as a child to stop scowling or she would develop wrinkles. She is objective, stating her descriptions of these changes as matter-of-fact, and only revealing her emotions from a distance. Her attention to detail highlights how women, young and old, are acutely aware of how their physical bodies present.