What do you think?
Rate this book
Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art
"Destined to become a new classic . . . Elkin shatters the truisms that have evolved around feminist thought.” ―Chris Kraus, author of I Love Dick and After Kathy A Literary Biography
One of Lit Hub's most anticipated books of 2023
What kind of art does a monster make? And what if monster is a verb? Noun or a verb, the idea is a to overwhelm limits, to invent our own definitions of beauty.
In this dazzlingly original reassessment of women’s stories, bodies, and art, Lauren Elkin―the celebrated author of Flâneuse ―explores the ways in which feminist artists have taken up the challenge of their work and how they not only react against the patriarchy but redefine their own aesthetic aims. How do we tell the truth about our experiences as bodies? What is the language, what are the materials, that we need to transcribe them? And what are the unique questions facing those engaged with female bodies, queer bodies, sick bodies, racialized bodies?
Encompassing with a rich genealogy of work across the literary and artistic landscape, Elkin makes daring links between disparate points of reference― among them Julia Margaret Cameron’s photography, Kara Walker’s silhouettes, Vanessa Bell’s portraits, Eva Hesse’s rope sculptures, Carolee Schneemann’s body art, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s trilingual masterpiece DICTEE ―and steps into the tradition of cultural criticism established by Susan Sontag, Hélène Cixous, and Maggie Nelson.
An erudite, potent examination of beauty and excess, sentiment and touch, the personal and the political, the ambiguous and the opaque, Art Monsters is a radical intervention that forces us to consider how the idea of the art monster might transform the way we imagine―and enact―our lives.
One of Lit Hub's most anticipated books of 2023
What kind of art does a monster make? And what if monster is a verb? Noun or a verb, the idea is a to overwhelm limits, to invent our own definitions of beauty.
In this dazzlingly original reassessment of women’s stories, bodies, and art, Lauren Elkin―the celebrated author of Flâneuse ―explores the ways in which feminist artists have taken up the challenge of their work and how they not only react against the patriarchy but redefine their own aesthetic aims. How do we tell the truth about our experiences as bodies? What is the language, what are the materials, that we need to transcribe them? And what are the unique questions facing those engaged with female bodies, queer bodies, sick bodies, racialized bodies?
Encompassing with a rich genealogy of work across the literary and artistic landscape, Elkin makes daring links between disparate points of reference― among them Julia Margaret Cameron’s photography, Kara Walker’s silhouettes, Vanessa Bell’s portraits, Eva Hesse’s rope sculptures, Carolee Schneemann’s body art, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s trilingual masterpiece DICTEE ―and steps into the tradition of cultural criticism established by Susan Sontag, Hélène Cixous, and Maggie Nelson.
An erudite, potent examination of beauty and excess, sentiment and touch, the personal and the political, the ambiguous and the opaque, Art Monsters is a radical intervention that forces us to consider how the idea of the art monster might transform the way we imagine―and enact―our lives.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published July 20, 2023
466 people are currently reading
8063 people want to read
About the author
Lauren Elkin
29 books482 followersLauren Elkin is a widely acclaimed Franco-American writer, critic, and translator. Her books include Flâneuse: Women Walk the City, which was a Radio 4 Book of the Week, a New York Times Notable Book of 2017, and a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel award for the art of the essay. Her essays on art, literature, and culture have appeared in the London Review of Books, the New York Times, Granta, Harper's, Le Monde, Les Inrockuptibles, and Frieze, among others. She is also an award-winning translator, most recently of Simone de Beauvoir's previously unpublished novel The Inseparables, and forthcoming fiction and non-fiction by Constance Debré, Lola Lafon, and Colombe Schneck. After twenty years in Paris, she now lives in London.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 164 reviews
May 19, 2023
Feminist art, beauty and excess? SIGN. ME. UP. Elkin's essay collection is packed with dense info and ponders female physicality in the art world. The title is inspired by Dept. of Speculation, where Jenny Offill uses the term "art monster" - and Elkin now investigates when and why women and their bodies are perceived as monstrous, as abject, as transgressive, and how female artists have claimed and owned their agency in being art monsters. From authors like Kathy Acker and Virginia Woolf over visual artists like Emma Sulkowicz and Eva Hesse to thinkers like Simone de Beauvoir and Julia Kristeva, Elkin ponders the lives and times of various art monsters who have changed their respective fields.
All texts relate to the body, be it young, old, queer, disabled, sick or healthy, and how the body exists in the world and is reflected in art. This is no easy book though: While Elkin is an excellent writer who makes it easy to follow her thoughts, the sheer amount of knowledge and the (smart!) complexity of the arguments presented require a reader who really wants to dive into these topics - and this reader will be richly rewarded with intelligent, transformative ideas about the role of female art monsters in a male-dominated art world.
All texts relate to the body, be it young, old, queer, disabled, sick or healthy, and how the body exists in the world and is reflected in art. This is no easy book though: While Elkin is an excellent writer who makes it easy to follow her thoughts, the sheer amount of knowledge and the (smart!) complexity of the arguments presented require a reader who really wants to dive into these topics - and this reader will be richly rewarded with intelligent, transformative ideas about the role of female art monsters in a male-dominated art world.
July 26, 2023
‘If we continue to speak in this sameness — we will fail each other. — words will pass through our bodies above our heads — disappear, make us disappear.’ — Irigaray. Jenny Saville gives us another language of the flesh beyond abjection or embrace.'
Like the first few 'essays' best; and had very much wanted to like this more. Admittedly, I thought it was a bit too repetitive for my liking. It almost made me not want to read/hear anyone mention Woolf ever again even though she’s one of my favourites. And while I thought the concept of the body x language was interesting. I thought the linguistic side of it was not explored well enough/ not compared well enough, which made me feel rather unconvinced of the entire argument she made about it. But probably I’m just not clever enough for the writing. For better or worse, it was very quick and easy to get through. Ultimately, I just wanted something more, not sure what exactly, but just ‘more’. It didn’t really leave any sort of lasting impression on me. I’d imagine this would work a lot better on a different reader, and I’m just not the right one for it is all.
‘(Chadwick) Physicality is reduced to surface — a mere echo of itself — the corporeal imploded into grains of dust. Dismembered into manifold fragments the subject shatters.’
‘When we speak we will inevitably use the wrong words, which will be the right ones. The effect they produce will carry.’
November 9, 2023
Lots of really valuable insights here, but it lost its way with the framing about a third of the way through and became more a series of linked essays than a book with a strong and consistent thesis. I’m not sure that the concept of the “art monster” was explored as thoroughly as I would have expected, and a lot of the time Elkin’s framing of womanhood and feminist art is implicitly quite white and definitely cis. She does engage with the work of women of colour but that didn’t always feel integrated into the overarching theory of the “art monster”. Given the focus on embodiment, Elkin really squandered an opportunity to talk more and trans and non-binary artists, fatness, disability, etc. It’s an interesting book, insightful cultural criticism to be sure, but there are some gaps.
April 23, 2023
lauren elkin continues to SLAP
May 26, 2024
Ok, there is something about Lauren Elkin that on initial reading I couldn't put my finger on. The more I read (and having read her other book Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London), the more I realised what it is. The way she writes makes her come across as a smart arse, pretentious know it all. It seems that some art critics (which Elkin purports to be) feel the need to be overly egotistical in their writing and Elkin is no exception.
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of amazing female artists mentioned here and some of their work showcased with colour photographs, but the narrative surrounding their work is overly constructed with pseudo-intellect thrown about with abandon. I would start off really enthused to be reading about an artist, then Elkin would start off with her rambling and I'd soon lose interest. This made the book feel like a labour to get through instead of a pleasure. Such a shame as I had high hopes for this one.
Anyhoo, I'm scouring the bibliography for decent references then it's off to my local library for donation.
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of amazing female artists mentioned here and some of their work showcased with colour photographs, but the narrative surrounding their work is overly constructed with pseudo-intellect thrown about with abandon. I would start off really enthused to be reading about an artist, then Elkin would start off with her rambling and I'd soon lose interest. This made the book feel like a labour to get through instead of a pleasure. Such a shame as I had high hopes for this one.
Anyhoo, I'm scouring the bibliography for decent references then it's off to my local library for donation.
August 9, 2024
Mögnuð. Sérstaklega hrifin af því hvernig hún fléttaði líkamlegri upplifun sinni af því að skrifa bókina inn í fræðitextann. Mæli með!
Read
August 15, 2023When I was an undergraduate in the early 1990s, I took a course in women’s art history that ran over multiple semesters and offered a historical survey. I encountered art made by Artemisia Gentileschi, Leonora Carrington, Alice Neel, Louise Bourgeois, and Carolee Schneemann, and writing from Linda Nochlin, bell hooks, Susan Sontag, and Laura Mulvey, all for the first time. My eyes were opened wide to the gaps in the history of art – and the world – that I had absorbed to this point. It’s not hyperbole to say this course reshaped my mind.
It was a pleasure, then, to revisit with older eyes some of this terrain in Lauren Elkin’s exploration of feminist art and the unruly women who have made it. Art Monsters – a phrase from Jenny Offill’s novel Dept. of Speculation – refers to women, defined by Elkin in the broadest sense of the word, who bust the boundaries of what are considered acceptable ways to behave and look. Art monsters reach for the truth of their own bodies, outside the patriarchal language that has traditionally defined, idealised and desired them.
Art Monsters is a major work, thoroughly researched, beautifully executed, and frequently surprising. Like so much of the boundary-busting art Elkin references, it is uncontainable and uncategorisable – part art history, part memoir, often conversing with the mechanics of its own creation, serious and searching. Written in fragments, it is concerned with aesthetics and affect, in opening up engagement and meaning, not closing it down in absolutes.
Conversations about feminist art, Elkin decides, have outgrown the declaration that the personal is political. This is now such a truism as to be almost meaningless. What Elkin prefers is art that surprises, providing an experience that is rooted in sensation, like life itself. Art is feminist not because of what it is but because of what it does – the political position it produces in the body of the viewer. A radical reminder of a radical way to engage with and think about women’s art, bodies and stories.
*this review was first published in the August edition of the Readings Monthly
It was a pleasure, then, to revisit with older eyes some of this terrain in Lauren Elkin’s exploration of feminist art and the unruly women who have made it. Art Monsters – a phrase from Jenny Offill’s novel Dept. of Speculation – refers to women, defined by Elkin in the broadest sense of the word, who bust the boundaries of what are considered acceptable ways to behave and look. Art monsters reach for the truth of their own bodies, outside the patriarchal language that has traditionally defined, idealised and desired them.
Art Monsters is a major work, thoroughly researched, beautifully executed, and frequently surprising. Like so much of the boundary-busting art Elkin references, it is uncontainable and uncategorisable – part art history, part memoir, often conversing with the mechanics of its own creation, serious and searching. Written in fragments, it is concerned with aesthetics and affect, in opening up engagement and meaning, not closing it down in absolutes.
Conversations about feminist art, Elkin decides, have outgrown the declaration that the personal is political. This is now such a truism as to be almost meaningless. What Elkin prefers is art that surprises, providing an experience that is rooted in sensation, like life itself. Art is feminist not because of what it is but because of what it does – the political position it produces in the body of the viewer. A radical reminder of a radical way to engage with and think about women’s art, bodies and stories.
*this review was first published in the August edition of the Readings Monthly
January 23, 2024
This was a tough read. An exploration of female artists who place the body, often their own body, at the centre of their art, who primarily focus on the body, and often making controversial and provocative art out of this material. Wide-ranging – the book introduced me to many artists I had never heard of – and fragmentary in its structure, I found the book quite destabilising at times with its disjointed narrative but overall it carried me along. I sometimes struggled with all the “art-speak” and found Elkin’s interpretation of some of the art pretentious and overblown, but that’s my personal reaction rather than a criticism of the book. There’s so much here to reflect on that I feel I need to go back and read it again in slow time and not feel so overwhelmed by the magnitude of the material. But that perhaps is the definition of good writing – that it makes us think and forces us to take on board new ideas and concepts. Elkin weaves in her own experiences and responses to the art, and her own reflections on feminism, and I found that personal aspect of the book added another welcome layer. I could have done with more illustrations – although there are quite a lot – as constantly having to break off my reading to turn to Google irritatingly disruptive. However, overall, although I found myself floundering at times, I ultimately feel that this is an important and challenging book with much to recommend it.
January 13, 2025
Zawiedziona książką Kiszy postanowiłam sięgnąć po Lauren Elkin, która czekała na półce. Podobało mi się jej „Flâneuse”, więc za to z marszu jeden punkcik, dalej obfite cytowanie z Virginii Woolf z ciekawą interpretacją, drugi punkcik, dużo nowych artystek i dogłębna analiza i interpretacja ich prac, trzeci punkcik, zgrabne łącznie ot-sobie-pisania, eseju, tekstu akademickiego i osobistych wspomnień, czwarty punkcik. Odjęłam punkty za brak pochylenia się chociaż w jakimś jednym miejscu, chociaż trochę, nad queerem i osobami transpłciowymi. Stawiając takie tezy, jakie stawia autorka i zadając takie pytania (czym jest sztuka feministyczna? Jak pokazywać ciało, by uniknąć male gaze? Jak performujemy swoją płeć) no po prostu trzeba.
Książka jest też chaotyczna i jakoś w trzech czwartych się rozjeżdża, ale autorka o tym ostrzega.
Ale mimo to bardzo dobrze mi się to czytało.
Książka jest też chaotyczna i jakoś w trzech czwartych się rozjeżdża, ale autorka o tym ostrzega.
Ale mimo to bardzo dobrze mi się to czytało.
November 26, 2025
hmmm ik vond het in het algemeen een interessant boek, informatief, met goede inzichten, maar bleef achter met een onaf gevoel. gezien het boek over unruly bodies gaat, ging het opvallend weinig over het queer lichaam, terwijl de auteur deze wel steeds in opsommingen benoemt. ook het zwarte lichaam lijkt een afterthought. dus dat is wel jammer
June 26, 2024
I picked this up because of Jenny Offill’s references to “the art monster.” Jenny has stirred a sort of cult following that I am also interested in and thought this would lead me more into indoctrination. However, this was written *because* of Dept. of Speculation and not the other way around like I initially thought. I think Elkin has a lot of great words and references but the mass of contemporary and modern visual art just wasn’t my jive.
January 26, 2024
Seriously one of the best books I’ve ever read!
December 24, 2024
some fragments —
“No need to bury the body: it is at the centre of our practice.”
“we have such physical connections to language that we feel in our bones what the words mean, in that order, and they must be in that order, and that is the end of that”
“Across the centuries, the art monster has confronted the problem of how to allow the body to speak. Queer bodies, sick bodies, racialised bodies, female bodies - what is their language, what are the materials we need to transcribe it? What are the languages of the body?”
“The art monster, with her diaristic indulgence and her personal clutter, takes for granted that the experiences of female embodiment are relevant to all humankind…[that] we might lay claim to the personal itself as not only worthy of anyone's attention, but necessary to attend to as the foundation for an ethical way of being in the world.”
“And what about what is not on the canvas, or on the page; what has been left out, or obscured, those present absences, pointed to but not articulated? How do you speak the silent body?”
“We are making an arrangement with language to save our lives”
“The woman in pieces may see herself in fragments as a way of holding herself together - or reconfiguring the body language she was given.”
“Why this body, and not some other body.”
“the body in pain speaks a language no one else does; that our suffering is mute to anyone else; that we can only gesture at describing it. But we can succeed in wounding our listener; perhaps not with the same pain, but with another, referred pain.”
“to write about the fraught relationship between language and the body, how the one can't express the other, but is called upon to try.”
“The power of language, and image, is to convey something besides, in addition to, above, below, beyond what we mean. When we speak we will inevitably use the wrong words, which will be the right ones. The affect they produce will carry.”
“No need to bury the body: it is at the centre of our practice.”
“we have such physical connections to language that we feel in our bones what the words mean, in that order, and they must be in that order, and that is the end of that”
“Across the centuries, the art monster has confronted the problem of how to allow the body to speak. Queer bodies, sick bodies, racialised bodies, female bodies - what is their language, what are the materials we need to transcribe it? What are the languages of the body?”
“The art monster, with her diaristic indulgence and her personal clutter, takes for granted that the experiences of female embodiment are relevant to all humankind…[that] we might lay claim to the personal itself as not only worthy of anyone's attention, but necessary to attend to as the foundation for an ethical way of being in the world.”
“And what about what is not on the canvas, or on the page; what has been left out, or obscured, those present absences, pointed to but not articulated? How do you speak the silent body?”
“We are making an arrangement with language to save our lives”
“The woman in pieces may see herself in fragments as a way of holding herself together - or reconfiguring the body language she was given.”
“Why this body, and not some other body.”
“the body in pain speaks a language no one else does; that our suffering is mute to anyone else; that we can only gesture at describing it. But we can succeed in wounding our listener; perhaps not with the same pain, but with another, referred pain.”
“to write about the fraught relationship between language and the body, how the one can't express the other, but is called upon to try.”
“The power of language, and image, is to convey something besides, in addition to, above, below, beyond what we mean. When we speak we will inevitably use the wrong words, which will be the right ones. The affect they produce will carry.”
March 11, 2024
this beautiful book ended with me spilling an ENTIRE nalgene in my bag absolutely destroying the beautiful full color spreads that make this read so rewarding. this how i wanted to feel reading katy hessels book, an absolute must pick up for anyone who remotely cares about feminist art and artists from the 1970s. i loved this and can’t wait to pick it up the next time one of the pieces comes to mind.
January 31, 2024
Really interesting. I don't know a lot about art but I do know about women. A good read if you are curious about art and the process, curiosity and rage that helps create it.
Read
May 31, 2024okay overall i loved this! i learned so much and i found it so interesting and couldn’t put it down! with that being said, there’s definitely elements of white feminism, and i agree with another reviewer who said that she strays from her art monster thesis when she engages with poc artists - those chapters were also a bit more surface level (describing the art rather than analysing it), but she at least acknowledges her shortcomings in her perspective as a white cis woman. i also wish she leaned more into the dense theory because that was my favorite part, but i also recognise that it is meant to be a mainstream book 🙈 i think she’s at her best when she’s talking about feminist performance art!! those were the parts where i was super super engaged. i also loved her discussions of literary art wherever they popped up (the section on dictée was one of my favs 🙈). i also loved when she experimented with writing form, specifically/especially ‘the nature of fire’, and wish she did that more!! loved her discussions of the abject and flesh and the gruesome elements of being a woman … meat meat meat!!!
preread: cixous maggie nelson dictée??? sign me up omg
preread: cixous maggie nelson dictée??? sign me up omg
Read
July 25, 2023Art Monsters does a splendid job of chipping away at the idea of “monster”, with the removal of definitions that cloud how we view the word today. Lauren Elkin is able to come at various artists and their works with the broadest view of “monster” in all it’s marvellousness. Definitions are flipped and compared to open up the beauty in “the monster”. This allows for a wise range of critical essays on eras and movements of feminist art, and their relation to the “monster” that can be seen to underpin these works.
The book focusing the physical influence women have had in the art world, and the ways in which the beauty through the monster has been expressed with the use of the body. Elkin shows how women have forged a physical presence in art. After being pushed to the sidelines even in their own art for so long; after being relegated to the role of bystander for things that “only look pretty”; after centuries of being locked into creating art that was unable to jump across lines of conventionality, Elkin shows how a wide group of “unconventional” women have prised their way through seemingly untraversable stereotypes to cement their place in art history - as well as how this has been done through representation and examination of the body.
I feel that the pacing of each essay worked for Art Monsters. I’ve had experience before, while reading art criticism books, of poor essay sequencing that can create a feeling of disjointedness and lack of focus. This is absolutely not the case this new release. Elkin has a steadfast commitment to her writing, and she even comments on this towards the end of the book. A feeling of needing to shine a light on this angle of criticism is evident from the outset, to then be underlined and emboldened by this final chapter.
The quick and pertinent Eva Hesse chapter, which bookends this work, really captures the essence of "Art Monsters". We are shown an example of failure for an artist (in this case, the boundary-demolishing Eva Hesse) and how they view their work, leading into how this then transforms and inspires new pieces that have a future knock-on effect. It highlights the artist’s goal of stepping outside of themselves. The difficult-to-describe feeling and occurrence of creating while beyond preconception. Losing track of all narrative structure to then stumble upon future work that inspires and nudges future art in any given direction.
My one very small complaint would be that I didn’t feel Elkin went far enough with her analysis of the literary aspects that she touched upon. Various ideas around the writing of Virginia Woolf, Kathy Acker, bell hooks and more, are mentioned, without Elkin ever truly putting her head above the parapet with personal feelings of what they mean. The personal is in there, don’t get me wrong, but I would’ve just liked a touch more.
Art Monsters is a beautiful book, written elegantly, - with touches of the personal and humorous - and packed to the brim with information and knowledge that can be explored further with the help of a beautifully curated bibliography to delve into. Read this book if you have even an iota of interest in feminist art, the body, and how this is represented in the art world.
Two much-anticipated books reaching their expectations for me in one month feels wonderful, I must make note of that.
The book focusing the physical influence women have had in the art world, and the ways in which the beauty through the monster has been expressed with the use of the body. Elkin shows how women have forged a physical presence in art. After being pushed to the sidelines even in their own art for so long; after being relegated to the role of bystander for things that “only look pretty”; after centuries of being locked into creating art that was unable to jump across lines of conventionality, Elkin shows how a wide group of “unconventional” women have prised their way through seemingly untraversable stereotypes to cement their place in art history - as well as how this has been done through representation and examination of the body.
I feel that the pacing of each essay worked for Art Monsters. I’ve had experience before, while reading art criticism books, of poor essay sequencing that can create a feeling of disjointedness and lack of focus. This is absolutely not the case this new release. Elkin has a steadfast commitment to her writing, and she even comments on this towards the end of the book. A feeling of needing to shine a light on this angle of criticism is evident from the outset, to then be underlined and emboldened by this final chapter.
The quick and pertinent Eva Hesse chapter, which bookends this work, really captures the essence of "Art Monsters". We are shown an example of failure for an artist (in this case, the boundary-demolishing Eva Hesse) and how they view their work, leading into how this then transforms and inspires new pieces that have a future knock-on effect. It highlights the artist’s goal of stepping outside of themselves. The difficult-to-describe feeling and occurrence of creating while beyond preconception. Losing track of all narrative structure to then stumble upon future work that inspires and nudges future art in any given direction.
My one very small complaint would be that I didn’t feel Elkin went far enough with her analysis of the literary aspects that she touched upon. Various ideas around the writing of Virginia Woolf, Kathy Acker, bell hooks and more, are mentioned, without Elkin ever truly putting her head above the parapet with personal feelings of what they mean. The personal is in there, don’t get me wrong, but I would’ve just liked a touch more.
Art Monsters is a beautiful book, written elegantly, - with touches of the personal and humorous - and packed to the brim with information and knowledge that can be explored further with the help of a beautifully curated bibliography to delve into. Read this book if you have even an iota of interest in feminist art, the body, and how this is represented in the art world.
Two much-anticipated books reaching their expectations for me in one month feels wonderful, I must make note of that.
November 14, 2023
In a cursory search, I’ve been unable to find the origin of the term “unruly body”, but it first came to my attention in Roxane Gay’ Unruly Bodies project. I’ve also read Susannah B. Mintz’s Unruly Bodies: Life Writing by Women with Disabilities, and We Are All Monsters by Andrew Mangham—or, more accurately, I tried to, but they are both very scholarly, and most of it went over my head. All of which to say, I’ve already been interested in monsters (Monster Studies is a huge topic on its own!), and “unruly bodies+monsters” will be my latest rabbit hole, no doubt.
My prior exposure to literature on monsters in art was related to disability in literature (Mintz, and Mangham, above, and Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc), so it’s been an eye-opener to read Elkin’s thoughtful treatise on monstrosity in art in relation to feminism. Although Unruly Bodies is heavy on visual art history, happily the images Elkin references are only a quick Google away; even someone with no background in visual art—like me—can find Unruly Bodies accessible and educational. Although it is rather the focus of the book, Elkin does not limit her analysis to visual art (paintings, photography, film), but extends her thoughts to literature, too. Additionally, having recently read Jazmina Barrera’s Cross-Stitch (tr. Christina MacSweeney), I was really pleased to see a little about the history of embroidery as a feminist art.
Some of my highlights: A thorough education in the work of Carolee Schneemann, Lynda Benglis, Hannah Wilke, Helen Chadwick, and other feminist artists who were active from the 1970s. Unruly Bodies is grounded in and inspired by the work of Jenny Offil and Virginia Woolf. I’m also glad that Elkin does not neglect the work of Black artists and artists of colour, including Sutapa Biswas, Kara Walker, Lubaina Himid, Lorna Simpson, Betye Saar, and others. Other writers and personalities in the book: Toni Morrison, Angela Carter, Véra Nabokov, Mary Richardson, and more.
Highly recommended. Take your time, and keep Google and your sticky tags ready. I will be processing and linking all I’ve learnt for years to come. Thank you to NetGalley and to Farrar, Straus and Girouxfor access.
My prior exposure to literature on monsters in art was related to disability in literature (Mintz, and Mangham, above, and Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc), so it’s been an eye-opener to read Elkin’s thoughtful treatise on monstrosity in art in relation to feminism. Although Unruly Bodies is heavy on visual art history, happily the images Elkin references are only a quick Google away; even someone with no background in visual art—like me—can find Unruly Bodies accessible and educational. Although it is rather the focus of the book, Elkin does not limit her analysis to visual art (paintings, photography, film), but extends her thoughts to literature, too. Additionally, having recently read Jazmina Barrera’s Cross-Stitch (tr. Christina MacSweeney), I was really pleased to see a little about the history of embroidery as a feminist art.
Some of my highlights: A thorough education in the work of Carolee Schneemann, Lynda Benglis, Hannah Wilke, Helen Chadwick, and other feminist artists who were active from the 1970s. Unruly Bodies is grounded in and inspired by the work of Jenny Offil and Virginia Woolf. I’m also glad that Elkin does not neglect the work of Black artists and artists of colour, including Sutapa Biswas, Kara Walker, Lubaina Himid, Lorna Simpson, Betye Saar, and others. Other writers and personalities in the book: Toni Morrison, Angela Carter, Véra Nabokov, Mary Richardson, and more.
Highly recommended. Take your time, and keep Google and your sticky tags ready. I will be processing and linking all I’ve learnt for years to come. Thank you to NetGalley and to Farrar, Straus and Girouxfor access.
May 7, 2024
Lauren Elkin is obviously extremely knowledgeable and PHENOMENAL as a guide to modern feminist art. I loved her descriptions of the works and how different pieces connect — the creation, its elements, stories, the cultural context and reception — but beyond that found the style of writing lacking focus. I get that it was intentional to write beyond genres, but it was disorientating to read academic writing mixed with sometimes word vomit, sometimes ramblings at you/herself. It genuinely felt like I accidentally stumbled into a personal blog that I wasn’t supposed to read.
She evokes thoughtful questions and brings up great artworks on the female experience in art+society and its reclamation all throughout the book, but I felt she barely grazed past the surface of each theme (when I could discern one). There is a cautiousness, playing it safe for fear of criticism/backlash in her analyses, as evident in her critique on Dana Schutz. I also wished she’d actually covered more on queerness and intersectionality but feel like the sheer amount of work regurgitated in this book + her doing her due diligence to be super mindful of all readers and not offend anyone ironically probably tamed the monster.
I guess I was looking for provocation and didn’t get it. Maybe this is just not for me.
She evokes thoughtful questions and brings up great artworks on the female experience in art+society and its reclamation all throughout the book, but I felt she barely grazed past the surface of each theme (when I could discern one). There is a cautiousness, playing it safe for fear of criticism/backlash in her analyses, as evident in her critique on Dana Schutz. I also wished she’d actually covered more on queerness and intersectionality but feel like the sheer amount of work regurgitated in this book + her doing her due diligence to be super mindful of all readers and not offend anyone ironically probably tamed the monster.
I guess I was looking for provocation and didn’t get it. Maybe this is just not for me.
March 17, 2024
An audio book read for me-
I really wanted to like this but perhaps my expectations were incorrect but overall this didn't work for me.
Elkin starts some great discussions and I did enjoy a lot of her analysis (for example her discussion of Helen Chadwick), however, I can't help but feel this would have been more successful as a collection of essays. I understand the experimental nature of her writing and perhaps because I listened to the audio book, it just didn't work for me and was disorienting. For example- There was a chapter at the end of the first section that should have been the introduction.
I also don't think all the artists she discussed were relevant to her, seemingly missing, thesis- what was she arguing?! This book, which is advertised as a study of the body in feminist art, seems to get away from the author. I don't understand why she kept such a strong focus on Virginia Woolf, which seemed forced and unecessary.
She also really missed a trick of not discussing the abject regarding the trans body and she makes mention of "the queer" with really no follow up.
Overall too unfocused for me, bizarre editing and a weird mix of academic criticism, personal memoir and confused case studies.
I really wanted to like this but perhaps my expectations were incorrect but overall this didn't work for me.
Elkin starts some great discussions and I did enjoy a lot of her analysis (for example her discussion of Helen Chadwick), however, I can't help but feel this would have been more successful as a collection of essays. I understand the experimental nature of her writing and perhaps because I listened to the audio book, it just didn't work for me and was disorienting. For example- There was a chapter at the end of the first section that should have been the introduction.
I also don't think all the artists she discussed were relevant to her, seemingly missing, thesis- what was she arguing?! This book, which is advertised as a study of the body in feminist art, seems to get away from the author. I don't understand why she kept such a strong focus on Virginia Woolf, which seemed forced and unecessary.
She also really missed a trick of not discussing the abject regarding the trans body and she makes mention of "the queer" with really no follow up.
Overall too unfocused for me, bizarre editing and a weird mix of academic criticism, personal memoir and confused case studies.
September 2, 2024
A exploratory read of feminist artists and how placing their bodies at the center of their art makes them “monsters” , the essays lose stream one third into the book and keep hitting the same points over & over again, the stylistic “/�� is a way for the author to write braided essays without strongly linking the parts of an essays at a sentence level (cool and efficient idea). The feminist art presented is all cis mostly white and does include any NB/trans artists or anyone far off the western world which does not help combat the overall “white feminist” vibe of the book.
I recommend physical editions of this book as it contains a lot of visual references and you’ll need your author hand to look up mentioned material in the book.
I recommend physical editions of this book as it contains a lot of visual references and you’ll need your author hand to look up mentioned material in the book.
January 10, 2024
As the book goes on it becomes a bit redundant but it was a good read. I think someone who is very familiar with feminist art history might not get that much from this book, but as someone who knows very little about that subject I learned a lot.
September 30, 2023
Devoured 💜💜💜
April 19, 2024
I’ve been pursuing art history, specifically the history of women artists, on my own accord for a while now. I think I skipped a some steps by picking up this book - it was a few too many intellectual notches above my enjoyment level.
I did learn a lot, and I liked how in this book in particular the author inserted herself into her writing, especially her experience as a mother. I have a newfound respect for performance art and photography, which haven’t been my favorite art forms but this book helped me appreciate them in a new light - and the social and economic commentary certain creative forms make.
While that was good and all, there was a lot of academic language that went over my head. I’ve looked up the meaning of “abject” 3 times and still couldn’t tell you what it means. And it’s used frequently in this book. There did seem to be some over analysis in some parts, where it felt like the author was almost arguing with herself. Which I can relate to but sometimes this book had me feeling - what is the point of all this?
I think this is for someone way more advanced in their art history / critical & theoretical studies than me. While I learned a lot, it felt more like homework than entertainment.
I read some of this on an international flight, and after forcing myself through a few chapters, I watched the film Girls Trip. I had about 10000x more fun doing that than I ever did reading this book. So maybe I love art history…but in certain doses. A raunchy female comedy (hello womens art!) is always gonna win out for me in the end.
I did learn a lot, and I liked how in this book in particular the author inserted herself into her writing, especially her experience as a mother. I have a newfound respect for performance art and photography, which haven’t been my favorite art forms but this book helped me appreciate them in a new light - and the social and economic commentary certain creative forms make.
While that was good and all, there was a lot of academic language that went over my head. I’ve looked up the meaning of “abject” 3 times and still couldn’t tell you what it means. And it’s used frequently in this book. There did seem to be some over analysis in some parts, where it felt like the author was almost arguing with herself. Which I can relate to but sometimes this book had me feeling - what is the point of all this?
I think this is for someone way more advanced in their art history / critical & theoretical studies than me. While I learned a lot, it felt more like homework than entertainment.
I read some of this on an international flight, and after forcing myself through a few chapters, I watched the film Girls Trip. I had about 10000x more fun doing that than I ever did reading this book. So maybe I love art history…but in certain doses. A raunchy female comedy (hello womens art!) is always gonna win out for me in the end.
October 30, 2024
My first Lauren Elkin read and I've immediately sought out my next! The book explores feminism, art, the body, politics, creation, and interweaves intimate, personal writing with critical. She focuses on different ways artists and writers have created works to blow things up, and how and why. So many of these artists, by the way, I'd never heard of but that is also what is so great about this book: Elkin's ability to introduce you to many radical and wonderful works and artists and arrest you in the stories she tells of them. The way she writes about the artworks brings them to life. It's a peculiar and quite wonderful feeling to be viewing an unseen artwork through the eyes of someone else. She is able to construct such vivid imagery/experience of them, that it feels as if you're looking at the works. This is a must read if you are looking to broaden your understanding of art and feminism. One of my favourite recurring images Elkin invokes is that of Virginia Woolf, ruminating and revelating in the bathtub. What a stunning image: a space for thinking intimately connected to physical self, where the body is at its most monstrously beautiful and purest form: floating, pruning, flopping, submerging
August 9, 2025
I'm really conflicted about this book. On the one hand, there were parts of it that I really enjoyed reading. I also learned a lot about artists and writers that I hadn't been familiar with and even learned new things about artists and writers that I am very familiar with. Elkin is also a great writer and it's clear that she thoroughly researched this book.
Now for the aspects that bewildered me. The concept of the 'art monster' never came together for me, and even after reading the book, I couldn't tell you what an 'art monster' is. It felt like Elkin herself was unsure at times, but she was so far down the rabbit hole of writing this book that she just had to keep going with it. At one point, she wrote "If Hannah Wilke's work is the problem this book poses, Hesse's is the answer." I'm not convinced a 'problem' was ever posed; she just responded to an off-hand line in a book about someone wanting to be an 'art monster,' whatever that means.
While I really liked Elkin's previous two books, I found this one a bit hard going at times. There were so many instances in which she would write lines about one art critic responding to the work of an artist responding to the work of another artist or something convoluted like that. We know she researched the book thoroughly and is a very intelligent person; I just think there were other ways to get that across.
So, in summary, this book worked well for me as a collection of essays that happened to be lumped into this nebulous theme, but I didn't see it as a coherent book that argued a point. And, please, don't ask me what an 'art monster' is!
Now for the aspects that bewildered me. The concept of the 'art monster' never came together for me, and even after reading the book, I couldn't tell you what an 'art monster' is. It felt like Elkin herself was unsure at times, but she was so far down the rabbit hole of writing this book that she just had to keep going with it. At one point, she wrote "If Hannah Wilke's work is the problem this book poses, Hesse's is the answer." I'm not convinced a 'problem' was ever posed; she just responded to an off-hand line in a book about someone wanting to be an 'art monster,' whatever that means.
While I really liked Elkin's previous two books, I found this one a bit hard going at times. There were so many instances in which she would write lines about one art critic responding to the work of an artist responding to the work of another artist or something convoluted like that. We know she researched the book thoroughly and is a very intelligent person; I just think there were other ways to get that across.
So, in summary, this book worked well for me as a collection of essays that happened to be lumped into this nebulous theme, but I didn't see it as a coherent book that argued a point. And, please, don't ask me what an 'art monster' is!
April 23, 2025
I did this on audiobooks. It was read by the author. I loved it. There are just not enough books about this important subject, and I can imagine some folks like in the reviews. Take issue with this one. But there should be more books that spend so much time talking about Hana Wilke. Thier sure is a lot about Virginia Wolfe, and I’m not a huge fan, but this has opened my mind a little further about just how revolutionary she is, even though I’ve heard that a lot from others. I was very struck by learning more about Vanessa Bell and her life too. It felt like the author wanted to hang close to what she herself is and knows well, rather than trying to spend a lot of time taking on the voices of other feminist artists, critics, and writers. Thereby, why she’s spent a lot of time with Kathy Acker, too.I am very much looking forward to digging in Moore on Helen Chadwick, who I didn’t know a lot about. Just dug it.
April 17, 2025
“To be gendered female is to be caught between beauty and excess, made to choose. To be a monster is to insist on both.”
“In the name of their genius, we have licked their stamps . . . Made their lives as easy as possible so they can have the time and calm they need for whatever it is they do in that study all day.”
“To be a good wife is to accommodate yourself to someone else’s story, a story in which you are not an artist.”
"And what about what is not on the canvas, or on the page; what has been left out, or obscured, those present absences, pointed to but not articulated? How do you speak the silent body?”
“In the name of their genius, we have licked their stamps . . . Made their lives as easy as possible so they can have the time and calm they need for whatever it is they do in that study all day.”
“To be a good wife is to accommodate yourself to someone else’s story, a story in which you are not an artist.”
"And what about what is not on the canvas, or on the page; what has been left out, or obscured, those present absences, pointed to but not articulated? How do you speak the silent body?”
October 7, 2025
I did read this for school, but it was on my TBR before my project even started taking shape.
Bold, insightful, shedding light on and giving credit to the baddies that paved the way in visual and performance art by putting their literal bodies on the line to redraw the boundaries and redefine to terminology to use for femin(ist)/fem(inine) art.
Bold, insightful, shedding light on and giving credit to the baddies that paved the way in visual and performance art by putting their literal bodies on the line to redraw the boundaries and redefine to terminology to use for femin(ist)/fem(inine) art.
April 23, 2025
Not quite sure who I think I am reading à book like this. I did have to ask chat gpt to summarise thé book for me after finishing as the narrative was quite hard to follow and fairly scatty. A little too artsy for a girl like me but enjoyed it nevertheless.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 164 reviews