A Different Garden

A Different Garden is rooted in a literary text by the medieval scholar Christine de Pizan, whose proto-feminist work, The Book of the City of Ladies, was published in 1405. Pizan imagined an allegorical walled city, built, populated, and governed by women and guided by three allegorical female figures: Reason, Rectitude, and Justice. This series imagines a garden in Pizan’s city, a similarly allegorical space that reflects on agency and self-determination. Each work cites an Old Master annunciation painting, which has been altered, replacing the figure of the Archangel Gabriel with a mirrored image of Mary, shifting the balance of power to create a different kind of encounter.