Encyclopaedia draws on a phenomenon: fake entries intentionally inserted into encyclopaedias, dictionaries and lexicons, originally devised as traps to catch copyright violations or as a playful way for editors to leave their mark on the text. These fictitious facts, subtly contribute to the erosion of trust in sources once considered authoritative. In Encyclopaedia, Gęsicka presents several hundred of these fabricated definitions, sourced from historical publications she bought online.
Weronika Gęsicka, Near Dark, from the ‘Encyclopaedia’ series, 2023-2025. Courtesy of the artist and Jednostka Gallery
By visually reinterpreting them using manipulated stock photos and AI-generated imagery, Gęsicka highlights the tension between truth and invention, as well as the fragile line between fact and fiction. In a world saturated with information, where news, advertising, and fiction increasingly overlap, how can we distinguish what is ‘real’?
With AI-generated content becoming a norm and images being easily altered, the project asks: what happens when even a single error appears in a source we trust? In an era marked by misinformation and manipulation, the work is a humorous reminder that knowledge, once perceived as stable and objective, is now a shifting terrain.
More about Weronika Gęsicka
Weronika Gęsicka was born in 1984 in Włocławek, Poland. She creates photographic works and installations that explore and intentionally complicate our sense of visual histories, evidential knowledge, shared memories and hidden narratives. Gęsicka works with archival materials, including images found accidentally online, but also those from stock photo libraries and the press.
Gęsicka is a winner of Foam Talent and EMOP Arendt Award, and was a finalist of Prix HSBC pour la Photographie and Prix Levallois. She is also a recipient of a grant from the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage.
