Photo: Maya Freiesleben

The exhibition features the project ‘Open Cards’, student-designed postcards to be distributed in public places and illuminating taboo or marginalized topics such as menopause.

How do we talk about the perceived female body? What stories do we tell, which do we keep secret? And who decides what should be considered established knowledge about health, reproduction, and sexuality? These are the questions that the exhibition illuminates.

It opens on 17 June 2026 (at 8 pm) and closes on 8 July (opening hours: Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday, from 1 to 6 pm) at the Museum of Medical History at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE, Martinistraße 52, Building N30b). The exhibition was conceived in a joint seminar of the Institute of English and American Studies and the Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Hamburg.

“The students researched the topic, defined the focus, and developed their own artistic perspectives. Together with Dr. Henrik Eßler from the Museum of Medical History, we turned our work into an exhibition in order to move our findings from the classroom to the public arena,” said Prof. Dr. Sophie Witt, professor of literature with a focus on medical and health humanities and head of the Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences. In addition to audio installations, collages, videos, and postcards, there was also intensive cross-fertilization with the other historical objects in the museum’s collection.

The exhibition focused on birth, midwives, the clitoris, female desire, and menstruation. The accompanying program includes a staged reading, artistic workshop, and scientific talk. Members of the media and others were invited to the events and to the opening on 17 June (8 pm) and to the close on 8 July (6 pm).

“Thanks to the interdisciplinary cooperation with the Museum of Medical History and the exchange with the Department of Gynecology at UKE, as well as synergies between the degree programs, we created an exhibition that shows that gynecology is not simply a medical field but also a site of cultural, political, and historical negotiation,” said Sandra Dinter, junior professor of British literature and culture. This is why, she continued, the exhibition specifically invites visitors to share their own memories, experiences, and questions and to rethink gynecological knowledge and to tell new stories.

Here you can find out more information about the exhibition and the accompanying program.