Nora Caplan-Bricker's essay 'Leaving Herland' was recently published in the latest issue of life and culture magazine, The Point, accompanied by images of Maria's collages.
Caplan-Bricker's essay describes the feminist utopia of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1915 novel Herland as "a world without men [in] a valley cupped by high mountains, accessible by only a single narrow path." What could be a better illustration of this fantastical realm than Maria's otherworldly artworks, basking in the glory of powerful femininity, and crafting dreamy, vertiginous landscapes from fragments of the natural world?
Re-contextualising the novella in today's #MeToo climate, Caplan-Bricker's essay stages a brilliant interrogation of gender essentialism, exploring the meaning of utopia for women - and for men - in the twenty-first century.