Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Adrian Piper joins the ranks of writer-artists who have provided much of the basic and most reliable literature on modern and contemporary art. Out of Order, Out of Sight is an artistic and intellectual autobiography and an (occasionally scathing) commentary on mainstream art, art criticism, and American culture of the last twenty-five years. Piper is an internationally recognized conceptual artist and the only African American in the early conceptual art movement of the 1960s. The writings in Out of Order, Out of Sight trace the development of her thinking about her artwork and the art world, and her evolving awareness of herself as a creative, racial, and gendered subject situated in an often limiting and always absurd cultural and social context.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Words and language are integral to conceptual art, and conceptual artist/academic philosopher Piper can articulate this relation from a unique position and better than most. The artist has divided her writings into two types presented in their own chronologically arranged volumes. Meta-Art exists somewhere between art and art criticism and analyzes Piper's own works; Selected Writings examines the issues surrounding these works. The style is occasionally passionate and decidedly autobiographical, as a key ingredient of Piper's art is the merger of the personal and the political. An African American activist-artist who started out in the late 1960s as Sol LeWitt's assistant, Piper creates altered photographs, performances, and installations that deal with racism and social change. This collection is important not only for elucidating the artist's own work but also for chronicling the art world of the past 25 years and for Piper's influence on others. For larger collections.‘Heidi Winston, NYPL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.