Ghost Bitch

Multimedia Film, Sculpture, Drawing, and Ritual Installation

In Ghost Bitch, Rebecca Goyette resurrects the past—both ancestral and personal—through the radical embodiment of her alter ego, a dominatrix spirit named Ghost Bitch. Rooted in the legacy of Rebecca Nurse, Goyette’s direct ancestor and a woman hanged during the Salem Witch Trials, this ongoing series channels intergenerational trauma, New England gothic, and erotic resistance into a biting feminist mythos.

Across film, drawing, sculpture, and participatory installation, Goyette reimagines the figure of the witch not as victim, but as provocateur and cultural critic. In Ghost Bitch: Arise from the Gallows, the artist returns to the historic town of Salem to restage touristic witch trial reenactments through a satirical and sensual lens. Working with present-day witches and collaborators, Goyette juxtaposes the spectacle of Puritan violence with the intimate defiance of the Ghost Bitch character—who reclaims power as a dominatrix in the shadows of her ancestor’s execution.

This subversive thread continues in Ghost Bitch U.S.A., a mythic fever dream that weaves together personal histories of familial betrayal with contemporary political satire. Goyette’s Ghost Bitch traverses landscapes haunted by patriarchy, fantasy, and farce—confronting generational pain and public spectacle with irreverent force. Through humor and kink, she collapses time: past witch hunts echo present-day sociopolitical repression, and the personal becomes unmistakably political.

The films are accompanied by a collection of drawings, ceramic sculptures, and painted works that extend the symbolic universe of Ghost Bitch. These pieces pull from Goyette’s subconscious and her scripts, incorporating motifs from New England folklore, trauma narratives, and the sensual grotesque. At the heart of the installation is a monumental altar composed of magical objects, props, and costumes used in the films—a fully functioning participatory site for ritual activation and viewer engagement.

Ghost Bitch is a bold invocation of feminine agency, erotic autonomy, and the unquiet spirits of history. Goyette’s blend of satire and sincerity offers a ritual space for viewers to reckon with inherited wounds—and reimagine what liberation might look like when ghosts are given a voice.

Press

Vice Magazine: Psychosexual Fantasy Art Recasts the Salem Witch Trials

Huffpost: Why Porn Is The Perfect Weapon To Fight Hatred, Fear, And Trump

Art F City: The Terrifying Experience of Extra Teats