Feminist collages with a funny side

Using cut-outs from National Geographic, tourist catalogues, and porn magazines from the 1960s and 1970s, Greek-Armenian artist Aikaterini Gegisian creates collages that present alternative, often humorous narratives about nature, female desire and pleasure. More than 60 of these collages make up her new book, Handbook of the Spontaneous Other. In one assemblage, a woman’s body is replaced by a vase of flowers. In another, a primped but grumpy-looking cat overlays an image of a decorative plate, while its face is half-obscured by a photograph of a shark’s head, all teeth and beady eyes. In this collage, a woman slides a grip into her hair – a sprig of jewel-like berries that appears to emerge from her head, and below her, a toboggan speeds down a slide. It’s just one example of how Gegisian transforms the unremarkable into something joyful, playful and spontaneous.

Handbook of the Spontaneous Other by Aikaterini Gegisian, £30 (Mack)