Looking at a modern image of a woman with a shell, Francesca Woodman's (1958–1981) Untitled of 1979–1980, we notice three shells: a real one, a woman's hairstyle arranged in the shape of a conch and a shell-shaped cloud. (Fig. 5.1) The image is one of Woodman's many enigmatic self-portraits. It shows the artist with her eyes closed and her head resting on her hands as if sleeping or daydreaming. Similar to the visual correlations between the three shells – the real one, the one made of hair and the cloud shapes – are the links between the decoration on the artist's sleeve and the maritime objects in the display case underneath her arm: they, too, seem to mirror each other's shapes. Woodman rests her head on a glass panel whose transparent surface and the marine objects it shields and supports evoke associations with water. Her hands are reflected in it, evoking the impression of a shore that connects her head to the “underwater world” contained by the display case. Supported by a “coast” formed of her hands, the shell shape of the artist's head indicates that we are looking at the self-portrait of a woman as a mollusc. Or, more specifically, a self-portrait of a woman's dream of being a mollusc.