Pizan's Garden

In 1405 the medieval scholar Christine de Pizan published The Book of the City of Ladies. Pizan imagined an allegorical walled city, built 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 alters a classical annunciation painting, isolating and focusing on the figure of Mary as an autonomous being.