Calling it a tail did not make it one
1920
A figure plummets through a starry, cosmic void in this striking 1920 illustration by Dugald Stewart Walker, her body swept up in a massive, swirling cascade of hair and fabric that stretches out behind her like a comet's tail. The caption at the bottom, 'Calling it a tail did not make it one,' is a witty nod to Lewis Carroll's famous pun in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, where the Mouse's sad 'tale' is mistaken for a physical 'tail.' Walker's intricate, Art Nouveau-inspired line work turns the simple act of falling into a dreamlike, ethereal journey, blurring the line between a story and a physical appendage.