Elles obliquent Elles obtinent Elles tempêtent by Agnès Geoffray

The photographic vocabulary of the "bad girls" rebellion.

Labeled as "deviant," "vicious," "uneducable," or "lost," thousands of young girls were committed by court order to so-called "preservation schools"—state-run correctional institutions for minors established in the late nineteenth century, whose doors remained open until 1951.

Drawing on the archives of these harsh institutions of confinement, artist Agnès Geoffray has created a series of defiant images imbued with remarkable emancipatory power. Her work reveals both the systems of surveillance and bodily discipline imposed on these girls and their acts of resistance, dissent, and solidarity. Accompanied by essays by art historian Vanessa Desclaux, which connect Geoffray's artistic practice to broader histories of struggle, this book restores voice and presence to these "bad girls," reclaiming them as political subjects of their own history—a history that is also ours.

Elles obliquent Elles obtinent Elles tempêtent by Agnès Geoffray. Textuel, June 2025.