Books: Making the Case for Debt Abolition

When you really stop and think about it, it’s wild how common it is in the US to graduate college or

Sep 28, 2020 • View in browser

When you really stop and think about it, it’s wild how common it is in the US to graduate college or art school with thousands of dollars of debt. While I’m fortunate to be in a better position than many of my peers, it’s likely I’ll be paying my undergrad alma mater back until I die or mysteriously win the lottery. (Oberlin, you can count on the former.) Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay, a new text by the Debt Collective, picks apart how we got here and what we might be able to do to shift this dystopian reality. Check out Alexis Clements’s insightful review of their case for “economic disobedience.”Also worth adding to your reading list is a new “pocket guide” to overlooked women artists. Lydia Pyne offers her take on Susie Hodges’s The Short History of Women Artists. Likewise, Ayoola Solarin and Ysabelle Cheung each dive into two timely and compelling graphic novels on our list, Ben Passmore’s Sports is Hell and Ancco’s Nineteen, respectively.Lastly, check out this compelling excerpt of Darmon Richter’s haunting new text, Chernobyl: A Stalkers’ Guide.And if you’re observing Yom Kippur, g’mar chatima tovah.– Dessane Lopez Cassell, Editor, Reviews

Making the Case for Debt Abolition Saddled with student loan debt? Now might be a good time to pick up the Debt Collective’s Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay, which makes a compelling case for “economic disobedience.” Alexis Clements

A Pocket Guide to Women Artists Overlooked by History Concise, pithy, and accessible, Susie Hodge’s The Short Story of Women Artists introduces readers to artists forgotten and obscured, many of whom are now rightly being reassessed. Lydia Pyne

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This Satire of Sports, Activism, and Policing Might Make You Laugh and Cry Set in the aftermath of a Super Bowl victory, Ben Passmore’s Sports is Hell spotlights human folly, displaying the US at its worst and most ridiculous. Ayoola Solarin

Elements of Adam Pendleton’s Creative Lexicon An excerpt from his limited edition artist book that accompanies his exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Hrag Vartanian

A Comic Tells the Rebellious, Messy Lives of Teenagers Ancco, who became famous for her diary-like webcomics, has published a collection of stories that ripple through domestic violence, social oppression, and rebellion. Ysabelle Cheung

Using Language to Investigate Whiteness In Wite Out, Linda Norton seeks the words to envision relationships not shaped by hundreds of years of white supremacy. Marcella Durand

The Shadow of Chernobyl Darmon Richter ventured to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to record the remnants of one of the world’s most serious nuclear disasters. Hrag Vartanian

An Urgent Book Club Dedicated to the Climate Emergency The Brooklyn Public Library and advocacy group Writers Rebel NYC have launched Climate Reads, a yearlong, online book club and discussion series open to readers anywhere in the world. Valentina Di Liscia

The End of Art History Writing a global art history demands that we give up historical thinking. David Carrier

From the Store

"You Might Be An Artist If..." An addictive assortment of comics by Lauren Purje about the ups and downs of life in the arts. Flights of fancy, bitter grumblings, pep talks, self-doubt, inspiration, procrastination, and more are all captured with a wry and relatable sense of humor.

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