Or, to give the exhibition its full title, Reunited: Gwen John, Mère Poussepin and the Catholic Church. Mère Poussepin was the 17th-century founder of the Catholic convent of Meudon in France. Gwen John was, of course, one of the most commandingly sensitive painters of the 20th century. Withdrawing from a disastrous love affair with the masterful superstar sculptor Auguste Rodin, the somewhat reclusive John took refuge in her conversion to Catholicism and drew comfort from the company of the Meudon nuns. Commissioned to carry out a series of portraits of their founder, the painter concentrated on images of self-contained contemplative grace. Robert Clark  · Barber Institute of Fine Arts, to Sep 21  A radical avant garde film-maker, Akerman's early works were minimalist in the extreme. This Belgian artist has never flinched from difficult subjects and her deconstructive style, fatalistic humour and caustic observations on identity, sexuality and politics have singled her out to be one of the most important female directors of her time. One of her most compelling films is the feminist discourse Hôtel Monterey, made in 1972. It is screened here together with two recent films, the psychologically fraught Women From Antwerp In November, and To Walk Next To One's Shoelaces In An Empty Fridge, which tries to retrace the footsteps of Akerman's grandmother, who died in Auschwitz. Jessica Lack  · Camden Arts Centre, NW3, Fri 11 to Sep 14  Algerian-born artist Bourouissa presents his first UK solo show of meticulously composed photographic tableaux. His series Périphérique might look like dramatic documentary images of unrest among the notorious immigrant suburbs of Paris (les banlieues), but in fact each picture - despite using banlieues youngsters as subjects - has been painstakingly staged. One is provided with decisive points of social tension, newsworthy moments without any clue given as to the news in question. The accompanying Teenage Wildlife videotheque is a mix of film clips, some selected by Jarvis Cocker, on a theme of the kicks and scrapes of growing up. RC  · Site Gallery, to Aug 9  Describing herself as "a typical television child", Rist might play to an audience with a short attention span, yet the cumulative effect of her video installations is far from shortlived or shallow. Rist's art is one of wonderment, of childhood glee recovered at will, of female sensuality unashamedly indulged. It's almost spaced-out in its lyrical cross-associations between visual glimpses, sound fragments and poetic suggestions. She seduces the viewer into scenarios of sharing secrets and intimacies. Here, one is invited to chill out by reclining on a "carpet landscape" to view the evocative spectacle projected on the ceiling above. Another room is furnished with oversized furniture to enchant viewers into childlike perspectives. Rist's is that rare thing: art that is delightfully poignant, and as deep as it is great fun. RC  · FACT, to Aug 31  Higgs was one of the vital components in the regeneration of the British art scene in the 1990s. Propounding a DIY approach to making, curating and promoting contemporary art, Higgs favoured a "no money no problem" ethic that saw him renting disused shops as galleries and posting art to various art world glitterati. A deceptively tireless self-promoter, it's no surprise he is now in the US continuing the work at the alternative art space White Columns. He returns to London for a show which charts the musty territory of the secondhand book, an odyssey he's been on for some 10 years, boldly dissecting tattered pages for artistic merit. JL  · Wilkinson Gallery, E2, to Aug 10  Arnolfini has been made into a shopper's paradise where visitors can snap up armfuls of cheap plastic goods and paper sculptures for £1. How this sits in a show about China's increasing dominance of the economic market is a tad vague, but anyone pondering the implications of the global economy shouldn't ask an artist. Still, Yoko Ono has a nice idea. Her ad hoc production line is rectifying broken china try to bring the consumer closer to the means of production, while Philippe Parreno (work pictured) is doing something with half-finished canvases. If this all sounds a little arbitrary, just remember the words "shop" and "bargain" - that'll get the punters in. JL  · Arnolfini, to Aug 31  Jürg Lehni And Alex Rich London  An exhibition about the advances in graphic technology doesn't sound sexy, but in the hands of Alex Rich and Jürg Lehni, you'd be surprised. The latter is responsible for Hektor, a spray paint program that, in layman's terms, is Rolf Harris without the annoying humming. Demonstrations of Hektor's artistic abilities and its superior sibling Viktor will go on show together with other drawing machines that have surfaced over the past few years. The result is A Recent History Of Writing And Drawing, an engaging survey of cut-and-paste computer illustration that reveals the casual anarchy deployed by programmers to defy everyday systems. JL · ICA, SW1, Wed 9 to Aug 31  There's something almost painfully delicate about Green's sculptural installation of birds mummified amid the Georgian domesticity of Derby's Pickford's House Museum. Dead pheasants have been shrouded in clay-soaked cloth and fired in a kiln so all that remains are ceramic shells and skeletal effigies. The sculptor is sufficiently skilled in compositional finesse to imbue this deceptively simple process with an aura of mythological ritual. This is the almost primal stuff of animistic wishbones and totemic spells. It seems as if the deceased birds have been encased in protective shells to ensure their survival in some ornithological otherworld. Then again, surrounded by the musty elegance of Pickford's dressing room and the humble straw mattress of the servants' quarters, the birds sometimes come on like spooky memorials to the house's long lost souls. RC  · Pickford's House Museum, to Sep 7
Reunited, Birmingham | Chantal Akerman, London | Mohamed Bourouissa/Teenage Wildlife, Sheffield | Pipilotti Rist, Liverpool | Matthew Higgs, London | Far West, Bristol | Jürg Lehni And Alex Rich, London | Hazel Green, Derby