April Gertler: Pussybow

PUSSYBOW brings together collages and abstract photographs as part of an ongoing investigation into femininity and its representations. Developed as the third installment in a trilogy that began with DAMP PATCHES (2011) and CAKEHOLE (2014), the publication continues a practice of juxtaposition, where images are layered, fragmented, and reassembled to produce shifting meanings.

The title draws on the pussybow, a form of neckwear historically associated with women entering the workforce in the mid-twentieth century. At once decorative and coded, the term carries multiple associations, from gendered dress to more explicit references to the body. These overlapping meanings resonate throughout the book, where the visual language moves between suggestion, abstraction, and material play.

Printed in a signed edition of 200 copies by Colorama in Berlin, the book is produced using risograph, a process that builds each color in layers. The resulting textures and slight misregistrations echo the work’s interest in instability, repetition, and the construction of meaning through image.