If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the Guerrilla Girls can boast that they not only helped make the New York art world more aware of gender discrimination, but that they also inspired the Fanny Adams group of English women artists who took the battle overseas by using the exact same tactics as the Guerrilla Girls.
Like the Guerrilla Girls, Fanny Adams conducted a poster and advertising campaign showing the under-representation of women in the arts by publicizing the lopsided statistics along with catchy visuals. Fanny Adams was the name of an eight year old British girl who was brutally murdered and decapitated in 1867. The term “Sweet Fanny Adams” is now slang in England for doing nothing.
The internationally famous Guerrilla Girls were founded in 1985 and are still active today. Fanny Adams, however, was only active from 1992 to 1993, and is today largely forgotten. Gallery 98 was fortunate to have recently obtained a rare Fanny Adams publicity package that both documents the group’s history and includes some of their most effective images.
Back in 2014, Gallery 98 collaborated with the Guerrilla Girls to mount the online exhibition Guerrilla Girls: Feminist Street Posters, 1985–1991. That exhibition sold out quickly, but over the years we have obtained other vintage Guerrilla Girls posters featured below and available for purchase.
Fanny Adams, Puts You in The Picture
Fanny Adams, Publicity Package with 12 Items; 10 Xeroxes, One Offset Print, and Hand-Written Note, 1992–1993
Size: 8.5 x 12 inches
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From the Fanny Adams publicity package containing 10 xeroxes, one offset print, and one hand-written note.
Guerrilla Girls, Conscience of The Art World
