Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This text reviews feminist art strategies as they emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s in America and the UK. It draws together the views of prominent practitioners, critics, academics and curators on a broad range of controversial issues. The central focus of the book is feminism's engagement with psychoanalysis and post-modernism and its aim of deconstructing the borders between art and craft, and theory and practice. Feminist politics in the art world are also investigated through discussion of the negotiations of feminist curators, responses to feminist exhibitions, issues surrounding pornography and the censorship of women's work, and the role of feminist teaching on fine art and design degree courses. The book covers a variety of art work, including installation work, painting, textiles and photography.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Most contributors to this readable volume attended the 1992 British conference "Feminist Art Criticism: Into the 1990s." In to-the-point, yet restrained, introductory comments, critic Deepwell defines feminism as "a broad umbrella for a diverse number of positions and strategies amongst women involved in the production, distribution, and consumption of art." Investigating these positions, some 22 short but effective essays are grouped by broad headings: "Between Theory and Practice," "Curatorship and the Art World," "On the Question of Censorship," "The Engagement with Psychoanalysis," and "Textiles." These challenging eyewitness accounts of recent feminist contributions to the art world are informative and absorbing reading. Well recommended for academic collections.‘Mary Hamel-Schwulst, Towson State Univ., Md. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

The essays in this anthology collectively address the difficulties faced by feminist artists and art critics in the 1990s as they work to find a negotiable space between artistic practice and critical theory. Much recent feminist writing has relied heavily on the employment of such poststructuralist theories as deconstruction, psychoanalysis, and semiotics. Indeed, many of the 22 essays in this book discuss the shortcomings inherent in this shift away from the practical and the political. Written by British critics, curators, academics, and artists, they emphasize a broad framework of concerns and are organized into sections focusing on issues that impact feminist art-making, including censorship, the role of art institutions, and the production of marginalized media such as textiles and other "crafts." The importance of this book lies precisely in the timeliness of these discussions of issues that are crucial to the future direction of feminism. Despite certain drawbacks to this book, such as the unevenness of the texts and a singular emphasis on a British feminist point of view, its overall direction merits attention and inclusion in collections of writing on feminist art. S. L. Jenkins; University of Southern California