BARBARA HAMMER: EVIDENTIARY BODIES
Barbara Hammer: Evidentiary Bodies
Hardback Cloth Edition
Publication Date: March 2018
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
104 p. | 8 x 10 in. | 75 color plates | ISBN: 9783777429922
Barbara Hammer is an American feminist artist known as a pioneer of queer experimental and
documentary film. In concert with an exhibition of her work at the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay & Lesbian Art, this volume seeks to celebrate the depth and expanse of Hammer’s five decades of art making.
Bringing together both known and previously unseen works of film and video, installations, works on paper, and material from her archive, this volume addresses critical themes that appear throughout Hammer’s work, including sensation and intimacy, lesbian representation, and the maintenance of illness, in addition to exploring the artist’s relationship to experimental queer cinema, feminist history, and environmental activism. Featuring a wide range of responses, from personal anecdotes to academic analysis and poetic interpretation, this volume highlights the resonating impact of Hammer’s artistic narrative across cinema studies, art history, queer theory, and feminist thought.
“Hammer prefers the term ‘actionary’ to ‘visionary’ in describing the work of other queer artists she has documented and promoted over the decades. On the basis of this show, I’d say both terms apply to her.”
– Holland Cotter, New York Times
“A testament to the singular combination of sincerity and irreverent humor that characterizes [Hammer’s] sex-positive feminism. . . . Hammer’s work reminds us that visibility is a political act.”
– Artforum