diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_ps.py b/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_ps.py
index 5da564d086f9..702c7bf63402 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_ps.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_ps.py
@@ -84,8 +84,7 @@ def gs_version(self):
             pass
 
         from matplotlib.compat.subprocess import Popen, PIPE
-        s = Popen(self.gs_exe + " --version",
-                     shell=True, stdout=PIPE)
+        s = Popen([str(self.gs_exe), " --version"], stdout=PIPE)
         pipe, stderr = s.communicate()
         if six.PY3:
             ver = pipe.decode('ascii')