Books

November 1, 2021 • View in browser

How Witches Have Held Us Under Their Spell for Centuries

As a free, powerful, and unpredictable woman, the witch has long been a crucible for mainstream society’s darkest fears. | Lauren Moya Ford

Why the Hell We Are Obsessed with Hell

Hell Hath No Fury provides fundamental clues as to why it seems that we cannot escape reincarnations of hell in either Dante or on Netflix. | Sarah E. Bond

Robert Vas Dias’s Words Explore the Fact of Things

In a hybrid text combining criticism and poems Robert Vas Dias explores the paradoxes of still life painting. | Burt Kimmelman

How Landscape Became Doctrine in American Art

In his new book, Tyler Green argues that landscape was Emerson’s method of glorifying territories shaped and bordered by White men. | Billy Anania

Jim Jarmusch’s Forays Into Collage

The director’s collages hold the same kind of sly humor, quiet dread, and concise observations as his films. | Sarah Rose Sharp

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Artist Sam Francis Gets His First Comprehensive Biography

Francis made over 10,000 artworks, starred in more than 100 solo exhibitions, and, in the late 1950s to mid-1960s, commanded the highest prices of any living painter. | Lauren Moya Ford

A History of Motherhood Through Design

Designing Motherhood includes over 100 objects spanning medical devices to depictions of laboring women in films. | Karen Chernick

Sexism and Colonialism Intertwine in the Story of a Toxic Relationship

In Paul, Daisy Lafarge delicately unpacks the power plays and mind games of a toxic relationship, with an emphasis on society’s — and art’s — silencing of women. | Anna Souter

A Psychedelic History of Mushrooms as Medicine

Brian Blomerth’s Mycelium Wassonii deploys amazing graphic storytelling to share his own exploration of mushroom history. | Sarah Rose Sharp

The Mythology of the Cross-Country Motorcycle Trip in Ed Roberson’s Early Poems

Ed Roberson’s motorcycle ride from Pittsburgh to the Pacific is a quest-romance, an exploration of American culture and American mythology. | Mark Scroggins