Weeding

By Geneviève Lebleu. Published by Conundrum Press. 

Softcover, 102 pages, B&W, 2021. 

X-Files meets The Young and the Restless

On a typical autumn afternoon, Martha hosts a group of middle-aged women at her suburban home. The day takes a sudden turn when Elisabeth, an estranged friend, turns up unexpectedly—and she isn’t the only unwanted guest at the tea party.

Martha’s sister, Maureen, shows up after years of radio silence, along some painful memories and a lot of confusion. It doesn’t take long for the guest list to change again when Martha disappears after a simple trip to the backyard for herbs. Martha is the most beloved of the women–but will any of the others be able to look past their own problems long enough to search for her?

A satirical portrayal of feminine archetypes in the social landscape of the 60’s, Weedingis inspired by soap operas that use unexplained disappearances and repetitive character reanimations to liven up otherwise uneventful plot lines. As a verb, “weeding” means “to remove an inferior or unwanted component of a group or collection.” In Weeding, Geneviève Lebleu takes this definition to the extreme with a fable about social exclusion in a world where women turn against one another.

Advance praise for Weeding

“Fraught friends, old feuds, teatime, and suburban backyard gardening, all turn beautifully, nauseatingly, weird in Genevieve LeBleu’s Weeding. Embittered chain-smoking Beth, Maureen, Martha, and others transform a seemingly normal day into a mutating, murderous, timeless story. Hypnotic drawings of roots, vines, and alien blooms, engulf bodies building much worrying wonder about the nature of friendship. Genevieve’s wicked creativity truly delights in this twisted trippy garden tale of women’s lives – inappropriately relatable, satisfyingly creepy, awkward giggle? I love this book.”

—Elisabeth Belliveau, creator of One Year in America

About Geneviève Lebleu

Geneviève Lebleu is a multidisciplinary artist from Québec City and is currently based in Montréal. She graduated with distinction from Concordia University in Studio Arts (2016) and completed a semester at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem (Israel).

Her work was featured in various events, exhibitions and festivals in Montréal (Le Vidéographe, GIV [Groupe Intervention Vidéo], Eastern Bloc, Perte de Signal, Festival SOIR, Galerie Galerie) but also abroad—in Israel and in Indiana where she attended her first artist residency in August 2017. Geneviève has been granted funding from both Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec and Canada Council for the Arts. Her work in stop motion animation was featured on national television on CBC Arts The Exhibitionist in November 2018.

She also self-publishes her comics and is currently working on her first graphic novel Weeding, to be published by Conundrum Press in the Fall of 2020. Outside of her personal art practice she collaborates with artists from the Montréal music scene, creating album cover art, flyers and music videos (“Cours toujours,” Paupière) and participating in audiovisual performances. Geneviève has also collaborated with other visual artists such as Montréal-based duo Pénélope et Chloë.