Justine Kurland: Puppy Love, Fire, 1999

Aperture is pleased to release this special limited-edition bundle, which includes a signed copy of Girl Pictures and a signed and numbered limited-edition print featured in the book. Limited to an edition of 100, proceeds from this bundle directly support the artist as well as Aperture's publishing and programming initiatives.

The North American frontier is an enduring symbol of romance, rebellion, escape, and freedom. At the same time, it’s a profoundly masculine myth—cowboys, outlaws, Beat poets. Justine Kurland reclaimed this space in her now-iconic series of images of teenage girls, taken between 1997 and 2002 on the road in the American wilderness. “I staged the girls as a standing army of teenaged runaways in resistance to patriarchal ideals,” says Kurland. She portrays the girls as fearless and free, tender and fierce. They hunt and explore, braid each other’s hair, and swim in sun-dappled watering holes—paying no mind to the camera (or the viewer). Their world is at once lawless and utopian, a frontier Eden in the wild spaces just outside of suburban infrastructure and ideas. Twenty years on, the series still resonates.

Each limited-edition print is hand-packed with great care and ships from New York within 3–5 days.