The Catalogue of Imaginary Beings (Plate No. 155)

Johanna Goodman’s “Catalogue of Imaginary Beings” are fanciful yet powerful tributes to the thousands of anonymous women who propelled the suffrage movement to victory, and to those women who continue to march and fight in the name of human rights today. The works draw inspiration and imagery from archival photographs, the history of portraiture, the media of grassroots political movements, Surrealism, and contemporary popular culture, among other sources.

In Goodman’s own words: “This series of message-rich images convey the complex ideas surrounding women and politics, through simple, powerful imagery. The Women in the images are monumental in scale relative to their surroundings, in powerful poses of resistance and rebellion. These women are composed of elements relevant to Women’s struggle for political access and power, and more specifically to the Women’s Suffrage movement itself. These characters are composites embodying notions of ‘the warrior,’ vulnerability, industry, the universal and the personal.”