Marginalia is a space where the Medieval conception of nature is turned upside down: rabbits hunt dogs and women defeat men at manly activities. Hybrid creatures, composed of human, animal, and plant parts inhabit often-overlooked margins. Hybrids serve as a form of comic relief and/or contemplative motivation.
There is also a lot of symbolism going on in the margins. Some images which we would read as highly sexualized are in fact an allusion to something in the text which the images surround: eg a man's erection = Christ's resurrection. The reverse is also true, such as the rabbit referencing female genitals.
Marginalized identities could live here in a contemporary version of this topsy-turvy space: lifestyle presentations which oppose the modern construction of what is natural. I also think it would be interesting to explore reappropriating some of these strange Medieval images, altering their significance with a contemporary lens.
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