Cut Out presents the previously untold relationship between photography, feminist art and collage, from the 19th century to the present day. Female artists have long employed collage to reflect the ways in which identity is often constructed from conflicting, contrasting and contradictory parts. Cut Out explores the relationship between photography and feminist collage, foregrounding the use of femmage – a radical reclaiming of craft traditionally associated with women – as a resilient method within feminist and political art.

Cut Out presents an expanded definition of collage and cutting techniques to encompass photomontage, assemblage and the photogram. Tracing a lineage from nineteenth-century makers to contemporary practitioners, we encounter Victorian album makers; Modernist, Surrealist and Dadaist innovators; and radical, second-wave feminist artists. Thematic sections include profiles written by expert contributors on key individuals, including Hannah Höch, Dora Maar and Lorna Simpson.

Looking to the future as much as the past, Cut Out also reveals how the pioneering work of contemporary and digital artists continues to subvert dominant narratives and foster ever-expanding forms of photographic collage. At a moment when photography and its history are being actively contested and reappraised, Cut Out is a reminder of its political power.