Paper bestiary

Monstrus — Paper Sculpture & Bestiary

Anaïs Herd-Smith · Paper artist, set designer & stop-motion director

The Monstrus belong to a wider, invented mythology I have been developing since 2019. Drawing on nature and the sacred, these hybrid creatures inhabit a world revealed only in fragments, through sculptures, installations and films. Their multiple eyes, layered scales and vivid colours invite a closer look at a universe that feels both playful and mysterious.

Monstrus — Renardus on a turquoise background — Monstrus — Renardus

Monstrus — Bestiary — animated loop

Monstrus — Under glass — animation 2

Monstrus — Under glass — animation 1

Monstrus — Pand’Or Box — animation

A colourful paper butterfly sculpture surrounded by purple flowers — Monstrus — Butterfly & flowers

Portrait with fluorescent paper corals, scales and many-eyed sea creatures — Monstrus — Neon Sea Life

Selected exhibitions

Joyful, colourful and intriguing, my sculptures invite curiosity through their unusual forms and vivid colours. They have been shown in galleries and at art events in France and abroad.

2025Exhibition at Galerie Caractère, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
2024“Monstre de papier”, group exhibition at Le Moulin du Got, Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, France
2023“Monstrus Sea Life”, Galerie La Paimpolette, Paimpol, France
2023Exhibition following an artist residency supported by DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Saint-Jean-d’Angély, France
2022“La boîte de Paon d’Or”, Delhi Art Week, Gallery Art Motif, New Delhi, India
2021Emerging artists exhibition, Le Carreau, Cergy, France
2020Monstrus exhibition for Le Club des Directeurs Artistiques, Slow Galerie, Paris, France
2019“Work on Paper”, group exhibition at The Brick Lane Gallery, London, UK

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