Susan Mogul’s first artist book, The Pencil Test, poses the question: Do I need to wear a bra? Personal, political, historical and satirical, Mogul deconstructs that nagging question as she takes the pencil test at the age of seventy-three.

What is the pencil test? Devised by Ann Landers in 1971, an era where many women chose to go braless, it was published in her syndicated advice column. “Place a pencil in the inframammary fold, between the breast and the chest. If the pencil does not fall to the ground, the woman has failed the pencil test and needs to wear a bra.”

Mogul’s Pencil Test, designed as a standardized test booklet, comes in a clear plastic case with two custom embossed pencils, and is printed in a limited edition of fifty. Price is available upon request.