Erotic Ambiguities: The Female Nude in Art
McDonald (fine arts, Univ. of Melbourne) presents an academic-style volume based upon the unquestionable fact that ambiguity exists in the perception or reading of successful visual art but also adds the proposal that "art is always erotic." The venue for examining these issues is mostly feminist performance body art as seen in photography and on screen. These works are viewed through the theories of Lacanian psychoanalysis, deconstructivism, and dissertations covering the conceptual ideal of an erotically female body as seen in poststructuralist feminist criticism, notably Judith Butler's Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (LJ 12/89). Most of the illustrations document work created by women of Australia, including the Aborigine, and much of the feminist imagery in the roughly 75 plates is fairly recent or little known, making this an important offering to those looking for work produced outside the usual centers. McDonald, however, steps beyond her topic of the "degendering" of feminist body art and criticism and tarnishes the subject by writing on deregulating intergenerationalist sex (e.g., "it is possible to conceive of a society in which sexual relations between children and adults, including incest, might be permissible and even desirable for all concerned"). Not recommended.AMary Hamel-Schwulst, formerly with Towson Univ., MDCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.