Fierce Pussy

First formed in New York City in 1991, fierce pussy is an art collective of queer women artists and activists, many of whom were also members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Composed of a fluid and often-shifting cadre of dykes, the collective was most active through 1994. In 2008, four of the core founding members—Nancy Brooks Brody, Joy Episalla, Zoe Leonard and Carrie Yamaoka—began working together again. The group is known for graphic public interventions, especially their signature wheatpasted posters that reclaim terms such as "lezzie," "pervert," "bulldagger" and "dyke" to promote their vision of lesbian visibility and acceptance. Adamantly low-tech, fast and low-budget, fierce pussy drew from scrappy resources such as the members' own baby photos, and relied on the use of old typewriters, donated materials and the facilities of their day jobs to produce their work. Emerging during a decade steeped in the AIDS crisis and LGBTQ+ activism, fierce pussy brought queer identity directly into the streets in a manner characterized by the urgency of those years.

Originally published on the occasion of the collective's 2008 exhibition at Printed Matter in New York, the first edition included 17 fierce pussy posters in an oversize format with spiral binding. The design allows the reader to tear out any of the posters, easily scan or photocopy them, or open the book to any page and hang it up like a wall calendar. This new expanded edition retains the original flexible design and more than doubles the poster count with an additional 19 recent and archival posters.