Books
César Aira’s Take on Contemporary Art Comes Up Short
Not every work tells a story; not every story told about a work enriches it.
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Psychoanalyzing The Legend of Zelda
In a new book of essays, The Psychology of Zelda: Linking Our World to the Legend of Zelda Series, psychologists and video game scholars probe the existential questions at the heart of the beloved video game franchise.
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Beneath the Pretty Surfaces of Sofia Coppola’s Films
A new monograph demonstrates that the director’s aesthetic does not equal “mere frippery,” but examines important issues.
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Wallace Berman's Magical World
If you have any interest in the wild array of people who defined the West Coast bohemian world, you must read Tosh Berman's Tosh: Growing Up in Wallace Berman’s World.
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Is It Beautiful, or Is It Art?
We philosophers love to argue, and so when I say that Thierry de Duve offers a lot to argue with, I mean that as sincere high praise.
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Contrariness and Subtle Humor from a 19th-Century Proto-Feminist Art Writer
A recently published volume of Vernon Lee's writing reveals a woman who is a product of privilege, as well as someone who used what it afforded her to resist the status quo.
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A Book of Necessary, Speculative Narratives for the Anonymous Black Women of History
Saidiya Hartman's new book of speculative fiction unearths the beauty in the wayward, the fiction in the facts, and the thriving existence in the face of a blanked out history.
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A Book Assumes the Voice of Louise Bourgeois in Uncomfortable Ways
Jean Frémon began his book Now, Now, Louison while the artist, who was also a friend, was still alive.
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An Attempt to Translate Philosophy into Comics Fails Miserably
Unlike their earlier books illustrating philosophical ideas, this book lacks clarity.
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A Captivating Biography Chronicles the Important Life and Work of Judy Chicago
Levin conducted 250 interviews with Chicago and her friends, family, colleagues, admirers, and critics, and had access to Chicago’s diaries and letters.
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A Book Argues for Dada’s Russian Origins
Unlike its Western iteration, Dadaism in early twentieth century Russia was closely allied to political revolution.
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When Capri Was the Place to Be
Jamie James gives a full, intriguing, detailed history of the island's visitors and expats, a wild panoply of writers, artists, rogues, madmen and madwomen, and thieves.