A Cyberfeminist Manifesto by artist collective VNS Matrix, about 1991.

This black and white laser print shows a square containing a globe. Around the globe are abstract oval motifs, which represent vulvas. Within the globe the following words are written: '... are in the modern cunt / the cunt...boundaries without prejudice without...a future cunt/a cyber cunt/we belive in the cuntocentric order we belive in semiotics jouissance madness poetry holiness and slime we have a dream/ a slime dream our symbol is the shining cunt - glowing emenating giving life to all who have suffocated and died in the old world order we give pleasure to ourselves and to those who dare to engage with our tree of delight its hot / its beautiful and its us velvet downunder / all over daring deceitful demi-monde we're waiting for the clit storm to blow in from paradise we make art with our...we are the merceneries of slime...cunt is a direct line to the matrix...downunder - pussy software.'

Given by the American Friends of the V&A through the generosity of Patric Prince

This work was formerly attributed to Troy Innocent.

The work shares the visual language of The Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st Century (VNS Matrix, 1991) with the globe with text within a square of vulvas. The text also shares similarities, including “we are the modern cunt,” and “cunt is a direct line to the matrix”. Since it is not identical, it may be an earlier version of the work, or a screenshot of an animated work.

VNS Matrix, a collective based in Australia and formed of four artists artists (Virginia Barratt, Francesca da Rimini, Julianne Pierce, and Josephine Starrs) emphasise the connection between the technology of the internet and femininity, pointing out that ‘matrix’ means ‘womb’ in Latin. The group formed in the 1990s, a time when there was a hope the internet may be a genderless place.

E.1013-2008