Produced on the occasion of the exhibition Unto This Last at Raven Row, 19 May – 24 July, 2010, taking its cue from John Ruskin’s eponymous book to consider the complicated relationships between contemporary art and craft. With work by Thomas Bayrle, Sarah Browne, Andrea Büttner, Alice Channer, Isabelle Cornaro, Dewar & Gicquel, Pernille Kapper Williams and Běla Kolářová.

*Please note this publication is secondhand and has some traces of previous ownership.

German artist and 2017 Turner Prize nominee Andrea Büttner examines depictions of beggars in visual culture in an artist’s book about poverty, art history, theology, and the politics of social benefits. Büttner, whose work addresses notions of shame, vulnerability, and dignity, presents a recent series of woodcuts, as well research conducted at the Warburg Institute in London, including sixteenth-century vignettes from the “Liber Vagatorum” and a visual essay on the iconography of shepherds and kings in nativity scenes.

With contributions by Andrea Büttner, Anne Carson, Christopher P. Heuer and Linda Nochlin.

From shaming and shamefulness to shame-avoidance and shamelessness, the experience of shame influences our social behaviours, decision making abilities, and desires. Shame determines what we show and what we hide. And yet, as an emotion that begs for its own concealment, what is the structure and appearance of shame? How does shame interact with the realm of the visible, and where does it surface in visual culture? In this extensive historical and contemporary analysis of shame and its power, artist Andrea Büttner probes the definitions and representations of shame. The book includes close readings of Sigmund Freud’s writings on play and fantasy, challenges theoretical approaches to Andy Warhol’s queer performativity on film, and frames Dieter Roth’s representations of shame in his writing and moving image work.

Designed by HIT.