A Cosmos: Rosemarie Trockel at the Serpentine Gallery – in pictures

Trockel displays many works by other artists, such as this sculpture by the ballerina-obsessed Morton Bartlett – Untitled (Ballerina) 1950/60 Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

A citron with a moth and a harlequin beetle (c1701-02). Trockel's botanical drawings hang among 17th-century studies of plants and animals Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

Rosemarie Trockel's Replace Me (2011), an inverted plastic palm tree. Behind it hangs Trockel's photographic version of Gustav Courbet’s Origin of the World, which has replaced the pubic hair with a large spider Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

Trockel's Aus Yvonne (1997) fetishises the idea of colonic irrigation Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

Trockel dwells on her relationship with other artists, such as Judith Scott, whose wool sculpture Untitled (1989) touches on the concept of 'women's work' Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

Untitled (1993), another wool work by Judith Scott, a deaf and mute autodidact who spent most of her life in an institution Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

Polyclonia frondosa, made in about 1876 by Bohemian craftsmen Leopold Blaschka and his son Rudolph using blown glass Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

The series Bookdrafts shows Trockel's imaginary book covers and strange sculptures arranged like a library exhibit Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

A collection of Trockel's photography Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

A cast of British primatologist Jane Goodall's hand Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

Lucky Devil (2012). Trockel's early fabric pictures, featuring logos woven into cloth, sit beneath a dead crab Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

Trockel's Stell Dir vor/Imagine (2002) is a hooded woman in a cabinet, her back turned to the viewer Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian