Summer Reading
In a country where political turmoil has become a daily reality and the news often brings anger and exhaustion, reading more than just the morning paper can reframe the way we feel about the world. Art New England’s annual summer book recommendations reveal that artists, educators and innovators are reading to understand their own positions within systems as well as within their own lives and practices. They’re locating themselves in difficult realities as a means of finding possibility and potential for change within them, and they’re finding clarity in the work of fellow creatives. Perhaps most importantly, they’re turning each page with a revitalized feeling of hope. Find out Find out what they’re reading— and why—below.
Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of
Planetary Civil War
Hito Steyerl
Verso Books, $17.95
Art Theory/Philosophy
“[In this] collection of [Hito Steyerl’s] essays, the overarching theme is the intersection between art-making, the culture around art, technology and politics. I seek out books that [ask] how technology has impacted our culture and our society. I don’t know enough about that, and it’s changing so rapidly. I look for people who ask questions, as opposed to looking backward and giving answers. I’m making my students read some of the essays for our next residency. Steyerl’s essay is powerful enough that I need them to know that this is one way of framing the conversation.”— Amy Theiss Giese, director of low-residency MFA in photography, New Hampshire Institute of Art, Manchester, NH.
Float
Anne Carson
Knopf, $30
Poetry
“As an unbound collection of poetry, essays and thoughts, it’s easy to meander and make connections from multiple points of view. I’m awed by Carson’s knowledge base as well as her ability to weave together ideas and approaches across time and discipline. She blends so beautifully history, philosophy, mythology and poetry. I find myself going back and forth between learning or research and being fully transported by poetics. There are pieces within this collection that inspire additional reading or examination and some that resonate deeply, bringing me to faraway places and a rearranged reality.”—Shoshannah White, artist, Portland, ME
Garments Against Women
Anne Boyer
Ahsahta Press, $15.85
Poetry
“[Garments Against Women] is a book of poetry, an examination of systems of control [and] of agency. Systems we may have registered in our peripheral vision, that we may have signed up for, or that we might exist under or within. Boyer’s absurd and dark humor reminds me of my own melancholic resignations with a levity that brings an implausible smile. The feeling is not redemptive nor prescriptive but rather a kind of wonder that systems of language can still be this evocative.”—Benjamin Chaffee, associate director of visual arts at Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
Second Skin: Josephine Baker
and the Modern Surface
Anne Anlin Cheng
Oxford University Press, $30.94
Biography/Theory
“[Anne Anlin Cheng] addresses the connections between race, architecture and performance through the extensive study of Josephine Baker and her work. I’ve always been fascinated and enamored with Josephine Baker, so when I came across this book, my mind was blown by how masterfully Cheng interweaves the strands between art, architecture and the “other.” She rereads and reinterprets our understanding of modernism through explorations into surface and depth that made me reconsider the way that I view Baker and think about modernism in general. This book in turn is having a direct impact on the work that I am making in the studio at the moment.”— Alexandria Smith, artist and former assistant professor of studio art at Wellesley College who has recently been appointed as head of painting at the Royal College of Art, London.
Seeing Like a State: How Certain
Schemes to Improve the Human
Condition Have Failed
James C. Scott
Yale University Press, $24
Cultural Criticism
“At RISD, we think a lot about what it means to see—by which we usually mean to think —like an artist or designer. But how might a nation-state “see?” This book critiques the myths of progress and projects of development. Interestingly (for those invested in art and design), the author charts continuities between “authoritarian high modernism” as an instrument of the state and as an aesthetic position. It’s not just grand state projects that failed terribly, but also those of artists and designers. Scott’s text invites us to consider the limits of design when faced with inordinately complex systems of nature and culture that exceed our understanding. It’s a call to listen in order to see.”—Leora Maltz-Leca, department head, Theory & History of Art & Design, RISD, Providence, RI, and curator of contemporary projects, Redwood Library & Athenaeum, Newport, RI.
This Woman’s Work
Julie Delporte
Drawn & Quarterly, $24.95
Graphic Novel
“A beautifully drawn and moving meditation on being a woman artist. The book reads like an intimate journal and the art feels like it is blooming on the page. Julie’s comics—cut, pasted and taped together—are sheer poetry. Beyond the specific insights her book offers on making art and making a life for oneself, it makes me feel more alive to the world.”—James Sturm, cofounder of Center for Cartoon Studies, White River Junction, VT We hope that these books will bring you a similar sense of wonder—a little revelation, a realization, a reframing of your place and your perspective. At Art New England, we seek inspiration and hope in the creations of others. If you’re reading this, we know that you do too, and we encourage you to pick up one (or two, or all) of these books at your local bookstore.
