"Years ago, when I was studying anthropology at university, one of my female professors held up a photograph of an antler bone with 28 markings on it. 'This,' she said, 'is alleged to be man's first attempt at a calendar.' We all looked at the bone in admiration. 'Tell me,' she continued, 'what man needs to know when 28 days have passed? I suspect that this is woman's first attempt at a calendar.' --Sandi Toksvig. And Woman Created...The Guardian. January 4, 2004. 

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Though it is unclear which artifact is referenced in the story above and equally unclear whether bone tally sticks were used as menstrual calendars, there is something quite compelling about the classroom moment Toksvig describes. There is something about existing in a body which changes cyclically that hears truth in the assertion that ancient women would have noticed and attempted to track their menstrual cycles. The desire to understand the cycles of one's own body intensely makes sense and also indicates a desire for bodily agency and autonomy. This is why millions of women and people who menstruate engage in this practice to this day.
 

We are living in an age where we have extraordinarily powerful technologies to track one's menstrual cycles. We are also living in a time when women's bodily autonomy and agency are under attack. In an era when events like miscarriage are being criminalized, many menstruating people are opting out of using technology to track their cycles for fear of this data being used against them.
 

This artwork is a working 28 day calendar. The tally marks on the wood mark 28 days. Each mark has a small hole in which to place the post, moving along the wood day by day. The 13 abalone shells represent the 13 moons of the year, which can be tracked by moving the beaded strand beside each on the new or full moon. It is an homage to the ancient menstrual calendars Toksvig describes--whether historical fact or imagination--and the innate desires they point to: to know and be autonomous within one's own body. This artwork is also an homage to the ongoing struggle women and menstruating people face to achieve and maintain the rights to the seasons and cycles of their own bodies.