Behind its gold-embossed cover, Encyclopædia contains nearly 200 sections, ranging from astonishing animals and infamous massacres to spectacular inventions, untraceable cities, and supernatural figures. It presents a vast collection of facts, each accompanied by archival images that appear to leave no room for doubt.
Yet, as the artist herself reminds us, “The manipulation of reality is not a modern phenomenon.” The stories within these pages, though seemingly credible, are in fact fabrications—plucked from old dictionaries and encyclopedias riddled with errors.
“I first discovered the concept of ‘paper cities’—places that exist only on maps, inserted as a means of copyright protection to detect plagiarism. That led me to explore the humorous side of misinformation, such as the quirks of Wikipedia, as well as more mysterious publications. One example is the Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, a 19th-century collection containing 150 fabricated biographies. The most logical explanation? Editors were paid per paragraph, and the lure of profit encouraged them to embellish or invent details to earn more,” she explains.
Fake news have always existed
These countless fabricated narratives serve as a source of inspiration for the artist, allowing her to merge reality with imagination—an approach she acknowledges creates a certain discomfort. Through a combination of collage and artificial intelligence, Gęsicka constructs seemingly “legitimate” images, visually innocent depictions of bizarre anecdotes.
But on closer inspection, many of these images are flawed—some are incomplete, reversed, duplicated, or split between two pages. They unsettle the viewer, forcing them to question the truthfulness of the information they accompany.
“The nature of photography as a medium makes it particularly susceptible to manipulation. If I lacked archival materials, AI would fill in the gaps, reinforcing the theme of my book while simultaneously highlighting the potential illegitimacy of images that lack proper sourcing,” she notes.
What emerges from her work is an illusion—one that thrives on the realism of its presentation. Through Encyclopædia, Weronika Gęsicka reminds us that fake news is nothing new. “While modern technology has made manipulation more widespread and sophisticated, it has also given us the tools to expose it,” she says.
And with a playful touch, she invites readers to engage in a paradox: the more real a photograph appears, the more it encourages us to search for the fiction lurking beneath its surface.
Encyclopædia by Weronika Gęsicka is available from Blow Up Press for €85.
