Venus Has No Arms, God Has No Clothes: Born To Be An Artist – Jenny Hunt
Release date: July 2025
Artist autobiography

Jenny Hunt grew up in Hāwera, Taranaki, in the 1940s and ’50s, with four siblings and parents from widely different social milieus. Her mother’s family moved in the upper echelons of Auckland society until they lost their fortune in the Great Depression, while her working-class father was a direct descendant of a Chickasaw Native American sentenced to penal time in Australia.

In the tension-filled house in rural New Zealand, prey to the advances of adult men and oppressed by the conservative Presbyterian church of her upbringing, Jenny fought to make sense of her surroundings and follow her passion for art.

Venus Has No Arms, God Has No Clothes is a moving and detailed portrait of the childhood of a prolific New Zealand artist, evoking the conservatism of the era she grew up in and the obstacles she had to battle to realise her vocation.

Jenny Hunt was in the forefront of the international fibre art movement as it began filtering into New Zealand in the 1960s. Its aim was to revolutionise the use of fibre as an art form. She became a member of ‘The Group’ of Christchurch in 1973, and in 1975, jointly won the Hansells Sculpture Award with a free-standing soft sculpture. Her work is represented in public and private galleries throughout the country.