Julie Doucet: Une rétrospection

Julie Doucet (born in 1965) has been one of the most important and influential authors of alternative comics in Canada, the United States, France and Germany. In the 1990s, the Quebec artist brought her subjective and radical perspective on the female condition to the underground scene with her autofictional comic book series Dirty Plotte. Her depictions of menstruation, masturbation and mental health, as well as her experiences of competition and success in a male-dominated field, paved the way for situated writing for a whole generation of women artists. As such, she pioneered autofiction as a means of empowerment.

In the 2000s, Doucet abandoned comics in favour of other art forms, developing an artistic practice that aims to constantly reinvent the relationship between image and writing. Her illustrations and collages are images of matter, her films are studies in lines, and her photocomics are images to be read aloud. She writes her poetry in the form of concrete images of cut-out words. She published her most recent drawings in the form of graphic essays.

The exhibition is therefore also a history of bookmaking and publishing: from the underground fanzine, through her releases with the very first comic-book publishing houses, to an experimental practice on the material form of the book, to which she has returned in recent years. In 2022, Doucet was awarded the Grand Prix at the Festival d’Angoulême in recognition of her career.

The comprehensive solo exhibition will be accompanied by the publication of an artist book featuring new poetry.

Curated by Anna Sailer with Morgane Magnin.