Cut Out : A Feminist History of Photo Collage, Montage and Assemblage

Cut Out presents the previously untold relationship between photography, feminist art, and collage through the V&A’s extensive collection of photography, spanning from the nineteenth century to the present day.

Female artists have long employed collage to reflect the ways in which identity is often constructed from conflicting, contrasting, and contradictory parts. Cut Out explores the relationship between photography and feminist collage, foregrounding the use of femmage―a radical reclaiming of craft traditionally associated with women―as a resilient method within feminist and political art.

Cut Out presents an expanded definition of collage and cutting techniques to encompass photomontage, assemblage, and the photogram. Tracing a lineage from nineteenth-century makers to contemporary practitioners, this fascinating volume covers Victorian album makers; modernist, surrealist, and Dadaist innovators; and radical, second-wave feminist artists. Thematic sections include profiles written by expert contributors on key individuals, including Hannah Höch, Dora Maar, and Lorna Simpson. Looking to the future as much as the past, Cut Out also reveals how the pioneering work of contemporary and digital artists continues to subvert dominant narratives and foster everexpanding forms of photographic collage.

At a moment when photography and its history are being actively contested and reappraised, Cut Out is a reminder of its political power.

200 color illustrations

Fiona Rogers is the V&A Parasol Foundation curator of women in photography, with a focus on contemporary artists and feminist practice. Rogers has been involved in photography for over two decades and is the founder of Firecracker, a digital platform to support female photographers. She is the coauthor of Firecrackers: Female Photographers Now.

Renée Mussai is an independent curator, writer, and scholar of visual culture. Formerly senior curator and head of collection at Autograph, she is currently senior research associate at the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre (VIAD), University of Johannesburg, associate lecturer at University of the Arts London, and chair of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation. Her publications include Eyes That Commit: A Visual Gathering, and several award-winning artist monographs.