Art Monsters

"Art Monsters joins a larger conversation about monstrousness and art. . . . provoking new, deeper questions about how feminism can and must evolve to engage with those who do things differently."—The Guardian

"A truly feminist work . . . building a ‘monstrous network’ of artists, while allowing the work to shape itself, veering between beauty and excess, and so to find its own monstrous form." —New Statesman

"A lively and vibrant account of feminist art that articulates the everyday experience of having a body . . . [a] superb book’"—The Spectator

"Insightful, provocative and at times heartbreaking."—Literary Review

"Elkin proves a more informative guide to feminist trends in the visual arts, bringing many an ephemeral happening energetically back to life."—The Daily Telegraph

“Expertly blending astute critical analysis with intellectual curiosity, Elkin resists easy answers about questions of femininity, physicality, and art, leading the text into rich and unexpected directions. Even those well acquainted with feminist art will be enlightened.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Lauren Elkin’s exhaustive, incisive re-readings of feminist writing and art across several centuries prove that the questions raised in these works are far from resolved. In fact, they're more timely than ever. The book seems destined to become a new classic. Making a passionate case for the monstrosity entailed in all acts of creation, Elkin shatters the truisms that have evolved around feminist thought.”—Chris Kraus, author of I Love Dick and After Kathy Acker: A Literary Biography

“Lauren Elkin has the nerve to defend the guilty, fight tooth and claw for long abandoned causes while making heroines out of trouble makers. Her book makes you take sides, change sides, change back and sometimes shout out loud with furious indignation, but you won’t find anything like this history, told in this way, anywhere else.”—Lubaina Himid, Turner Prize-winning artist

“Elkin’s authority as a cultural critic springs from her signature style of curious questioning. Rather than imposing her conclusions on the reader, she juxtaposes ideas, images, language, in a vivid collage that invites us to look more deeply. Never linear—because life isn’t—but perpetually moving, in both senses of the word.”—Jeanette Winterson, author of Frankissstein

“Soaring and vivid, the experience of reading Art Monsters is like watching a lightning storm at night, each chapter a bolt of light. A remarkable twinning of intellect and brightest scholarship, it left me giddy with possibility.”—Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost in the Throat

“A fascinating re-visioning and re-imagining of women artists who have used their bodies in all sorts of creative, subversive ways. Lauren Elkin provides fresh insight into more familiar names and works, and brings plenty of less well-known ones to light, taking us through more than a century of women who boldly took on the world.”—Juliet Jacques, author of Trans: a memoir