SASHA Consiglio is holding her first exhibition in York since she was forced to take down her show of dolls in coffins at the Slug And Lettuce last August.

No dolls, no coffins, no coffin lids, this time. Instead, Sasha is hanging four monoprints from her student days at Jacob Kramer in Leeds in 1998, each of them inspired by dreams and Aborigine art. For sale at £150 each, they form the first show at Victor J's bar since its redecoration, and if a couple of these surrealist works are "on the rude side", surely they will not be removed before their two month run is completed.

"I said to Victoria, 'Don't worry, it's not dolls this time', and when I brought in the four studies, she said it was just what they were looking for. I think they tie in very well with the new furniture here," says 30-year-old Australian.

Sasha had not anticipated causing offence with her reconstructed dolls and she will continue to explore that form of art, making the new from the old in her home studio in Thorpe Street, York.

"I was really pleased with the car-crash artist description in the Evening Press and I want to carry on with more work in that vein but I don't think York can accept me like that.

"I got kicked out of that last exhibition and the comments I got in the comments book were absolutely disgusting, saying I was a paedophile and a child killer," she says. "I never imagined that response, never ever, particularly as one of the pieces had been exhibited before without any problem."

She would like to do more etching and monoprints, but she says the cost is prohibitive at present, so instead she is working with existing items. Hence the dolls last year, to be followed by a project on a much smaller scale.

"You know how you keep things for memories, sweet wrappers, tickets, precious things? I want to sew them together and put them in boxes, where you can't touch them, because it really frustrates people when they see things and really want to touch them."

Sasha, who works at the Exit clothes shop in York, is at present completing her City and Guilds course in teacher training in art and is soon to start work experience at York College.

"I want to end up teaching 16-plus at college, when students really know what they want. I just want to help other artists get stuff out of their system," she says.

As for those infamous coffin dolls? "They're back in my studio, looking really sad, but I'm trying to get another exhibition for them in the South," says Sasha.

Updated: 16:03 Thursday, February 19, 2004