Edited by Marcus Boon and Gabriel Levine

Part of the acclaimed Documents of Contemporary Art series of anthologies which collect writing on major themes and ideas in contemporary art.

"...The texts collected here are fresh and provocative. From magic to high art theory, structuralism to anarchism, Boon and Levine have collected the most vital words on the "practical turn" in art, and many other ways of thinking about practice besides."

 -Nina Power, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy,
University of Roehampton

‘Practice’ is one of the key words of contemporary art, ranging from artists’ descriptions of their practice to curatorial practice, from social practice to practice-based research. Once used to denote ‘doing’, as distinct from thinking and making, today the term can convey associations of political action (praxis), professional activity, discipline or rehearsal, as well as a shift away from the self-enclosed artwork or medium to open-ended actions, series, processes and projects. This is the first anthology to investigate what contemporary notions of practice mean for art, to trace their development and speculate on where this leads.

Artists surveyed include Arakawa, AA Bronson, John Cage, Judy Chicago, Lygia Clark, Andrea Fraser, Tehching Hsieh, Mary Kelly, Henri Michaux, Linda M. Montano, Shireen Neshat, Pauline Oliveros, Yoko Ono, Adrian Piper, Gerhard Richter, Miriam Schapiro, Carolee Schneemann, Stelarc, Fiona Tan, Min Tanaka, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Cecilia Vicuña.

Writers include Kathy Acker, Giorgio Agamben, Hannah Arendt, Alain Badiou, Claire Bishop, Gregg Bordowitz, Pierre Bourdieu, Julia Bryan-Wilson, Judith Butler, Jennifer Doyle, Okwui Enwezor, Paul B. Preciado, Suely Rolnik, Peter Sloterdijk, Isabelle Stengers, Winnie Won Yin Wong.

Marcus Boon is Professor of English at York University, Toronto. His books include In Praise of Copying (2010). Gabriel Levine is a researcher, musician and interdisciplinary artist whose writing has been published in TOPIA, PUBLIC and the Journal of Curatorial Studies.

Paperback, 240 pages, 210 x 145 mm

ISBN 978-0-85488-261-8

First published 2018

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