Note: Entries are generally arranged by price from least expensive to most. Publications are welcome to reprint part or all of this review as long as credit is given to FABB or to me. Publishers, please send review copies to: Tee A. Corinne, editor, FABB: The Feminist Art Books Bulletin, 1199 Sunny Valley Loop, Sunny Valley, OR 97497, USA.
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It has been a summer full of personal and public disasters, a friend’s death, second degree burns on all five fingers of my left hand, September 11th. It is a good time to look for images of healing and wholeness such as those published in We’Moon ‘02: Priestessing the Planet, An Astrological Moon Calendar Datebook, and Daily Guide to Natural Rhythms for Womyn. It is an excellent place to see ecofeminist and goddess/spiritual art by contemporary women artists. Estacada, OR: Mother Tongue Ink, 2001, $15.95 (lay flat binding), ISBN 1-890931-09-8; $15.95 (spiral) ISBN 1-890931-10-1; $15.95 (unbound) ISBN 1-890931-11-X; $12.95 (wall calender), ISBN 1-890931-12-8. Toll free: 877-693-6666.

From Flitch to Ash: A Musing on Trees and Carving by Diane Derrick reworks the artist’s twenty year journey into wood carving and the devastating loss of her work to fire. Central to the book are Derricks’ commentaries on the spirituality of wood and wilderness and the nature of forests. Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press, Inc., 2001, 108 pp, $14.95 paperback, ISBN: 156023-217-X; $29.95 hardcover, ISBN 1-56023-216-X.

Culture in the Marketplace: Gender, Art, And Value in the American Southwest by Molly H. Mullin is a highly readable narrative about a group of (almost all) unmarried women who moved from the East Coast to Santa Fe, NM, in the early twentieth century. These women, including some open lesbians, strongly influenced the market for Native American art. Durham: Duke, 232 pp., $18.95 ISBN 0-8223-2618-3.

Women of Vision: Histories in Feminist Film and Video, edited by Alexandra Juhasz, is built around twenty-one warm, personal introductory overviews and interviews with twenty-one contemporary independent and experimental filmmakers and videographers. The book works as a history of contemporary feminist activity in the field. Films/videos, writings by interview subjects, and distribution and contact information are listed. Interviewees: Michelle Citron Carol Leigh, Juanita Mohammed, Carolee Schneemann, Victoria Vesna, and more. Six lesbians are among the participants: Barbara Hammer, Yvonne Welbon, Kate Horsfield, Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Eve Oishi, and Cheryl Dunye. Minneapolis: U. of Minnesota Press, 2001, 280 pp., $19.95 paperback, ISBN 0-8166-3372-X; $49.95 hardcover, ISBN 0-8166-3371-1.

Findings: The Jewelry of Ramona Solberg by Vicki Halper, intro by Helen W. Drutt English showcases the necklaces of a contemporary Washington State-based artist. Solberg (b. 1921), creates elegant and humorous pieces by combining found objects and silver. Seattle: Bank of America Gallery, 2001, $19.95 paperback, ISBN 0-295-98158-X; $35.00 hardcover, ISBN 0-295-98157-1, dist. by U. of Washington Press.

Erotic Ambiguities: The Female Nude in Art by Helen McDonald is a dense, theory-filled volume which discusses work by--among many others--contemporary queer artists Zoe Leonard and Tracey Moffatt. London and New York: Routledge, 2001, 249 pp., $22.95 paperback, ISBN 0-415-17099-0; $75.00 hardcover, ISBN 0-415-17098-2.

The Art of the Loom: Weaving, Spinning, and Dying Across the World by Ann Hecht features a broad variety of textiles and weaving styles. Includes photographs of weavers and their looms and information about weaving styles and yarn production and dying. Seattle: U. of Washington Press, 2001, 208 pp., $29.95 paperback, ISBN 0-295-98139-3.

Nice Girls Don’t: Erotische Fotografien by Laurence Jaugey-Paget, with text in English and German by Regina Nössler, presents the photographs of Jaugey-Paget (born in 1965 in France, now working in London) who makes sexy photographs of trendy, stylish, young urban women together who appear to be having a very good time. Minimal text. Tubingen, Germany: konkursbuch Verlag Claudia Gehrke, 1999, 132 pp., $29.95 paperback, ISBN 3-88769-136-9, see address below.

Surrealist Painters and Poets: An Anthology, ed. by Mary Ann Caws, includes translations of writing by the infamous Elsa Baroness von Freytag-Lorinhoven, Annie Le Brun, Djuna Barnes’ friend Mina Loy, Méret Oppenheim, Gisle Prassinos, painter Frida Kahlo, and photographer Claude Cahun. Indexed. Cambridge and London: The MIT Press, 2001, 530 pp., $49.95 hardcover, ISBN 0-262-03275-9.

Inge Morath: Life as a Photographer features images by Morath (b. 1923) of people from many countries: ordinary people as well as artists, celebrities (including a delightful series on Marilyn Monroe) and a very funny series of people wearing paper bag masks by Saul Steinberg. Munich: Gina Kehayoff Verlag, 1999, 184 pp., $45.00 hardcover, ISBN 3-929078-92-9, dist. by Prestel.

I have mentioned Sublime Mutations: Photographs 1990-2000 by Del LaGrace Volcano previously, but now have seen a copy of the book and am very impressed. With essays in English and German by Jay Prosser and Gerburg Treusch-Dieter, it is an excellent overview of the work of Del LaGrace Volcano, formerly known as Della Grace, who was born in 1957 in California and now works in London. In edgy photographs high on gender ambiguity, Volcano portrays erotica, mutating self-portraits, images of friends, tranz portraits, a series on Kathy Acker, scarred, pierced, and tattooed bodies, and more. Not Indexed. Tubingen, Germany, konkursbuch Verlag Claudia Gehrke, 2000, 192 pp. $59.00 Hardcover, ISBN: 3-88769-135-0. Dist. by Turnaround (London), E:orders@turnaround-uk.com and by Art Stock, 41 Monroe Turnpike, Trumbull CT 06611, tel (800) 437-7840 and (203) 459-5090, fax (800) 557-5601 and (203) 459-5095.

The Dream of the Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha by Constance M. Lewallen with essays by Lawrence R. Rinder and Trinh T. Minh-ha examines the brief life and conceptionally-rich work of Korean American artist Cha (1951-1982) in performance, video, film, artists’ books, mail art, and works on paper and cloth. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 2001, 224 pp, $27.95 (£27.95) hardcover, ISBN 0-520-23287-9. Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha is a reprint of Cha’s germinal 1982 autobiographical/mythological text. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 2001, 179 pp, $15.95 (£10.95) paperback, ISBN 0-520-23112-0.

Design and Feminism: Re-Visioning Spaces, Places, and Everyday Things, ed. by Joan Rothschild with a foreword by Paola Antonelli, is practical, theoretical, and visionary. Essays include “Claiming Women’s History in the Urban Landscape,” “Outgrowing the Corner of the Kitchen Table,” “‘Special Needs’ and Housing Design,” “Re-designing Architectural Education,” and much more. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers U. Press, 1999, $25.00 paperback, ISBN 0-8135-2667-1.

Tina Modotti: Image Texture Photography by Andrea Noble examines the life and work of the politically radical Italian-American photographer (1896-1942) primarily known for about 300 photographs, most produced in post-revolutionary Mexico in the 1920s. Developed out of Noble’s dissertation, the text is strong on theory. Albuquerque: U. of New Mexico Press, 2001, 172 pp. $29.95 hardcover, ISBN 0-8263-2254-9.

Ornela Vorpsi - Nothing Obvious, ed. by Ornela Vorpsi and Martin Jaeggi, contains images of nude women, odd, often fragmented, some in color, moody, almost no text. Zurich: Scalo, 2001, $39.95 hardcover, ISBN 3-908247-32-2, dist. by D.A.P. (Distributed Art Publishers).

There are many intellectual and aesthetic pleasures to be found in A Studio of Her Own: Women Artists in Boston, 1870-1940 by Erica E. Hirsheler, which tells the stories of more than forty women artists working primarily in realistic modes. There are sections on artist couples involved in “Boston marriages,” on bisexual painter Margarett Sargent, on African American sculptor Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, and much more. Indexed. Boston: MFA (Museum of Fine Arts) Publications, 2001, 227 pp., $40.00 hardcover, ISBN 0-87846-482-4, dist. by D.A.P. Distributed Art Publishers.

Letizia Battaglia: Passion, Justice, Freedom--Photographs of Sicily, texts by Alexander Stille, Renate Siebert, Roberto Scarpinato, Leoluca Orlando, Simona Mafia, Melissa Harris, and Angela Casiglia Battaglia, presents three decades of work by a contemporary, award-winning, Sicilian photographer. In black and white images, Battaglia views her home town of Palermo and the effect the Mafia has had on it. Images of lovers, women working, pissing walls, of life in all its messy exuberance and of natural and unnatural death. New York: Aperture, 1999, 144 pp., $45.00 (£28.50) hardcover, ISBN 0-89381-805-4.

Cleopatra of Egypt: From History to Myth, ed. by Susan Walker and Peter Higgs, with essays titled “Cleopatra’s Subtle Religious Strategy,” “Searching for Cleopatra’s image: Classical Portraits in Stone,” “Was Cleopatra Beautiful?” and more, includes a rich collection of sculpted images, from jewelry and coins to public monuments. Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 2001, 384 pp. $60.00 hardcover, ISBN 0-691-08835-7.

Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman, with essays by Andrew J. Walker, Judith A. Barter, George T.M. Shackelford, Kevin Sharp, Erica E. Hirshler (editor), and Harriet K. Stratis, deserves the terms “informative” and “monumental,” with photographs, related work by other artists, and reproductions of the work by Cassatt (1844-1926), a painter who spent most of her adult life in Paris. Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago Museum, 1998, 320 pages, $65.00 hardcover, ISBN: 0-8109-4089-2.

Photographed on the River Thames in central London during the winter and spring of 1999, Dictionary of Water by Roni Horn (b. 1955) is an evocative re-exploration of Horn’s visually obsessive water theme. Exquisite (and beautifully reproduced) images show only the surface of the water with its reflections and shadows. No text. Germany, Steidl/Edition 7L, 2001, 200 pp., $90 hardcover, ISBN 3-88243-753-7, dist. by D.A.P.