A Book for Girls

Anna Tereshkina’s artistic practice is defined by interdisciplinarity, multiple genres, and cooperation with other people from various spheres. She explores the themes of gender research, personal and collective memory, protection of human rights, and social critique.

A Book for Girls demonstrates the strategy of rethinking traditional gender stereotypes. Using a found 1991 encyclopedia of domestic science, For You, Girls!, which teaches “how to look after the home, be tidy, healthy, and dexterous,” Tereshkina incorporates rebellious drawings, collages, and everyday artifacts, such as sweet wrappers, tickets, and magazine cuttings, thus disrupting the normative content of the book.

The texts and illustrations about keeping house are in dialogue with visual elements that are provocative, absurd, ironic, chaotic, and childishly expressive. The artist makes fun of or ignores the imposed female roles, turning the book into a feminist statement that is in opposition to fixed models of education.