NEW YORK—If Wile E. Coyote were to chase the Roadrunner out of their desert landscape and into a body of contemporary artwork, that work would probably be Holli Schorno’s collages, currently on view at the Pavel Zoubok Gallery in Chelsea, through June 7. In these sparse, arid scenes, white expanses of velvety paper serve simultaneously as sky and land, quietly foregrounding the forms that Schorno slices from the pages of old geology textbooks, topographical maps, and home-improvement how-to manuals. Panoramic in scope, these collages, which range from sketchbook to picture-window size, evoke a world in which UFO-spotters cobble together complex machines on their rooftops, only to have the machines come to life and crawl away.

The visual intricacy of these works echoes the complexity of their subject material. Schorno’s book cuttings, upon close examination, are worlds within themselves. Each piece becomes shorthand for a fragment of an actual place or thing; viewers might even recognize places they’ve been among the map cuttings. Allusions to plate tectonics and other geological processes appear amid the maps, perhaps in homage to the New York-based artist’s earthquake-fraught home of Oakland, California.

Schorno’s Dada and Surrealist influences take form in spidery-legged machines, reminiscent of Salvador Dali’s elephants, and in seemingly absurd juxtapositions. Tiny diagrams of geological processes are propped against solar panels; notions of scale are tested as entire houses rest atop caged light bulbs.

Thematically, Schorno sticks to a narrow range of visual themes, as in her previous collage work using cut-up machine manuals, and mines the interface among her materials for meaning. The images used in this work come together to create an acute yet playful commentary on the relationship between people and their environment.

The labor that must have gone into the work is industrial in its ambition; however, the consideration and organic subtlety in these pieces make them dynamic, grounded, human.

Here are Holli Schorno’s picks for what to see in New York this weekend:

1. John Baldessari / Matt Mullican: PONG at Tracy Williams Ltd., through June 28

"The exchange between former teacher and student, Baldessari and Mullican, humors and gratifies. There is a sense of gamesmanship afoot in this remarkable show. Each work responds to the previous like a lively, intimate duel. No better place to behold this conversation between these two extraordinary artists, then at Tracy Williams Ltd."

2. Gedi Siboni at Greene Naftali Gallery, through May 24

"Gedi Sibony’s use of space and found materials is quiet and poetic. Simplicity and precision of placement speak of remnants relocated to the realm of the reverent."

3. Chris Jones at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, through August 17

"During his spring residency at HVCCA, Chris Jones has painstakingly constructed a full-scale horse-drawn stagecoach titled Repair is the Dream of the Broken Thing, from found images, glue, wire, wood, and fiberglass support. Widely used before the development of the railway, this coach looks like it has been pulled through space-time, altering its cellular composition and leaving the standing relic weathered, torn, and incomplete. This haunting work connects popular cowboy culture across the world."

4. Decoys, Complexes, and Triggers: Feminism and Land Art in the 1970s at SculptureCenter, through July 28

"This show of important sculptors strikes a clear and decisive blow to today’s individual-pursuit-driven artworks. The endeavor to merge one’s self completely into the fiber of our world, as these land artists did, is a humbling experience. In terms of scale, even the largest earth works became dwarfed and in some cases eaten up entirely by their host. There is fearlessness inherent in the works of such artists and the examples presented here physically and as documentation are a harmonious reminder of a bygone era of important movements in art."