Anna Gaskell's two series based loosely off of Alice in Wonderland—wonder (1996–97) and override (1997)—load complex fairy tale narratives into single frames. The images are obviously a staged "reality" with no beginning or end so the viewer is left to fill in the blanks. I think Anna Gaskell's work offers great new possibilities for how the story goes. In the fairy tales, everyone has a happy ending—but what if the ending didn't turn out to be a happy one? The sharp angles, the harsh cropping, and the strange, even eerie sense of playfulness are evidence of her experimentation with this collapsing distinction between "happily ever after" fiction and a more complex reality.
Anna Gaskell, untitled #6 (wonder), 1996
Anna Gaskell, untitled #8 (wonder), 1996
Anna Gaskell, untitled #25 (override), 1997
Anna Gaskell, untitled #5 (wonder), 1996
Anna Gaskell, untitled #5 (wonder), 1996
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