Laurie Anderson [Anglais] [Relié]

Laurie Anderson, the high priestess of performance art/rock, gets the royal treatment in this gorgeous coffee-table-book retrospective of her acclaimed 30-year (and still going) career. Goldberg, author of the critically praised Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present and Performance: Live Art Since 1960, is the consummate performance art critic and chronicler. With Anderson's blessing and involvement, Goldberg wends her way chronologically through the art, writings, performance pieces, videos, films, and installations of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The 323 illustrations, including 117 color plates, could have easily upstaged the text, but Goldberg's prose is delightfully intelligent and insightful. "The goal of this book," writes Goldberg, "is to present the full range of Anderson's creativity." Mission accomplished. This is a "bomb book" that will fly off the shelves; the alluringly bizarre cover alone (the finale from her 1983 piece, United States) is well worth the modest price. Recommended for all libraries; those with active performance collections should buy multiple copies.DBarry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"...thoughtful overview of Anderson's multimedia career...vivid and illuminating...shows the seamless continuity of Anderson's daily life, dreams and work."

The term performance artist isn't heard much anymore, but in its heyday, mixed-media artist and musician Anderson was the performance artist nonpareil. Beginning as a solo monologist and singer who used distinctive dress, props, photos, films, and electronic devices, Anderson gradually expanded the scale of her work. Since United States, completed in 1983, she has required other technicians, musicians, dancers, and singers to realize full-scale theatrical works, the latest of which, Songs and Stories from Moby Dick (1999), is the first employing a preexisting story. This album of performance photos and art, song lyrics, and monologues from her works affords quite an eyeful, which Goldberg describes rather than critiques. Lacking the sound of Anderson's voice, straight and electronically varied in pitch so that she can sound male and even carry on dialogues without hiring an actor, the book can't fully convey her wry and surreal humor or the satiric notes she expresses through spoken pitch and duration. Still, it is some book! Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Laurie Anderson is one of the most acclaimed and innovative performance artists working today. This book, written by a leading authority on performance art, delivers a comprehensive look at Anderson's multifaceted career, from her performance pieces of the early 1970s to her 1999 electronic opera,

Songs and Stories from Moby Dick. Filled with photographs of Anderson's performances, sculptures, books, installations, instruments, and inventions, stills from her films and videos, reproductions of her drawings and sketches, and including song lyrics and excerpts from many of her stories, the book vividly conjures up the artist's achievements. It also offers fresh insights into her pioneering multimedia pieces (such as United States and Stories from the Nerve Bible), her musical recordings (including the pop hit "O Superman"), and her provocative collaborations (with William Burroughs, Spalding Gray, and Lou Reed, among others).

Prepared with Anderson's cooperation and participation, this book will be the ultimate gift for her many fans and will gain her many new ones.

ROSELEE GOLDBERG is the author of Abrams' definitive books Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present and Performance: Live Art Since 1960. The former curator of the Kitchen Center for Video, Music, and Performance in New York City, she contributes to Artforum and teaches at New York University. Goldberg lives with her family in New York City.

320 illustrations, 117 in full color, 203 in black and white, 9 7/8 x 9 7/8"