A group show titled As If: Alternative Histories from Then to Now is currently on display at New York’s Drawing Centre (until 28 July), offering up an array of early speculative fiction, as imagined by writers, philosophers, and artists. Each of them turn fantasies into plausible realities—absurd, amusing, and sometimes terrifying. Together, they transform history as we know it and imagine alternative endings, dreaming up alternative utopias and dystopias alike. Joanna Russ’s The Female Man is included as part of the exhibition, alongside such greats as Philip K Dick, as well as artwork for Sun Ra and original ink drawings for Marvel’s Black Panther.
