Recent Publications
To order: to place an order for a publication, e-mail smart-publications@uchicago.edu or call 773.702.0528. These books are also available for purchase in person at the Smart Museum Shop.
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Heartland
Edited by Charles Esche, Kerstin Niemann, and Stephanie Smith
With essays by John Corbett and Frank Veenstra; Joshua Decter; Dave Eggers; Charles Esche; Hasan Kwame Jeffries; Andria Lisle; Hesse McGraw; Kerstin Niemann; Stephanie Smith; Rebecca Solnit; Matthew Strauss; Dan S. Wang; and Matt Weiland.
Available fall 2009.
While growing out of the Heartland exhibitions at the Van Abbemuseum and the Smart Museum of Art, this book is much more than an art catalogue. It includes interviews and illustrated essays on an eclectic mix of topics: art, music, eco-farming, alternative state history, road trips, and urban development. Each of the artists involved (in both iterations of the exhibition) is featured in text and image, and their work is put in the context of the show and its engagement with the region. Finally, assembled together for the first time, the publication presents the aims and ambitions of the many artists’ initiatives and independent cultural organizations encountered during the research phase of Heartland, creating a unique resource for future cultural travelers of this fascinating terrain.
Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art
Wu Hung, with Jason McGrath and Stephanie Smith © 2008
Paper, 160 pages, 100 color plates, 8" x 10.5", $30
ISBN: 978-0-935573-46-6
Displacement continues a series of Smart Museum catalogues produced in conjunction with Wu Hung’s groundbreaking exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art. Through extensive illustrations, interviews, and a substantial essay by Wu Hung, the publication documents the work and concerns of the artists Chen Qiulin, Yun-Fei Ji, Liu Xiaodong, and Zhuang Hui. Other essays extend consideration to representations of the Three Gorges Dam in film and in contemporary art in the West. Moving beyond any single medium or trend, Displacement offers nuanced, thought-provoking perspectives on an issue of great social, environmental, and global concern.
This exhibition and accompanying catalogue were made possible in part by the generous support of Fred Eychaner and Tommy Yang Guo, Dan Bo, the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, and the Women's Board of the University of Chicago.
The "Writing" of Modern Life: The Etching Revival in France, Britain, and the U.S., 1850–1940
Elizabeth Helsinger, with essays by Martha Tedeschi, Peyton Skipwith, Anna Arnar, and Allison Morehead © 2008
Paper, 104 pages, 75 halftone illustrations, 8.5" x 11", $20
ISBN: 978-0-935573-45-9
Generously illustrated with works by both well-known and little-known printmakers, The "Writing" of Modern Life examines the intertwined arts of etching and writing, from the polemical beginnings of the Etching Revival in the 1850s to its twentieth-century afterlife. During this period, etching was reinvented as an original art form that—like writing—was uniquely fitted to expressions of an artist’s individual personality and the experience of modernity. The essays touch on the relation between the literary and visual arts and offer a new interdisciplinary perspective on the Etching Revival.
The “Writing” of Modern Life is one in a series of projects at the Smart Museum of Art that has been generously endowed by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The exhibition catalogue was made possible by the Feitler Family Fund.
Adaptation: Video Installations by Ben-Ner, Herrera, Sullivan, and Sussman & The Rufus Corporation
Stephanie Smith, with critical responses by Nell Andrew, Darby English, Flaminia Gennari, Tom Gunning, Mark Hansen, Matthew Jackson, Eric Slauter, and Rebecca Zorach.
http://adaptation.uchicago.edu
Adaptation is accompanied by a unique online publication that documents the exhibition through an array of interactive content. This free online catalogue not only offers core information about the exhibition but also presents a series of features that take advantage of the dynamic medium of the web, including: video clips of the works, a public discussion forum, a behind-the-scenes image archive, and a series of critical responses by scholars with connections to the University of Chicago.
This exhibition is supported by the Office of the Provost and the Arts Council, University of Chicago, the Feitler Family Fund, Larry and Marilyn Fields, Susan and Lewis Manilow, Dirk Denison, and the members and friends of the Smart Museum.