How do you make people look at something – say, domestic violence – that they might usually try to avoid?

For Tauranga Women’s Refuge, the answer is Grim Tales, a coffee table book, made in collaboration with The Incubator.

Each of the 13 stories in the book is a true tale of surviving domestic violence, rewritten by a local author, and illustrated by an artist from The Incubator.

The stories are dark, powerful and beautiful, and the book itself is a lovely object that people would happily display and read like any other.

And that’s exactly the aim – to get in to people’s homes, and have the stories reach those they might not be able to otherwise. The message is one of strength and survival, and the aim is to raise awareness and to give hope to people who are still living in the same situation. All profits go to the Tauranga Women’s Refuge. If you’re in New Zealand you can buy it here and see for yourself how they are making people want to look straight at something that’s often too hard to see.

Images from Tauranga Women’s Refuge

By guest blogger Alinta