We humans have a complex relationship with cats and dogs. Dogs have been used to hunt and guard, and both species have been used for rodent control. Cats and dogs are also our companions, they live close to us, and they have entered into our story and myth and we often anthropomorphize them, such that the most prized animals are seen to embody a valued human trait (i.e., dog/loyalty) better than any human image can represent that trait.

Cats and dogs are domesticated animals, and as such owe their shape and character to a great extent to a history of human selection. People have shaped this animal, so the subject of Peterson’s work is already an artifact of culture (like art or architecture), and she engages the complex intersection of human and animal worlds.