Block was a hugely influential journal in the developing fields of Visual and Cultural Studies. The journal's editors and contributors sought to further the critical tradition in art history, respond to the work of contemporary artists, and bring the concerns of new cultural and critical theory, particularly feminist and post-colonial theory, to the study of art and design history.
The Block Reader brings together classic writings by leading cultural theorists and artists which were first published in the journal, to provide an invaluable resource for the teaching and study of art and design history and theory and cultural studies.

Between 1979 and 1989, "BLOCK" initiated and responded to key debates in visual and cultural studies, publishing writings by artists, art and design historians and cultural theorists. The journal's editors and contributors furthered the critical tradition in art history, responded to the work of contemporary artists, and brought the concerns of new cultural and critical theory to the study of art and design history. The" BLOCK Reader in Visual Culture" brings together classic writings by leading cultural theorists and artists first published in this seminal journal and which are now unavailable, providing an invaluable resource for the teaching and study of art and design as well as theory and cultural studies.
Contributors: Jon Bird, Barry Curtis, Tamar Garb, Philippa Goodall, Nicholas Green, Frank Hannah, Dick Hebdige, Lucy Lippard, Frank Mort, Kathy Myers, Fred Orton, Claire Pajaczkowska, Griselda Pollock, Tim Putnam, Oliver Richon, Martha Rosler, Lisa Tickner, Necdet Teymur, Judith Williamson.

We are living in an age when 'nature' seems to be on the brink of extinction yet, at the same time, 'nature' is becoming increasingly ubiquitous and unstable as a category for representation and debate.
Futurenatural brings together leading theorists of culture and science to discuss the concept of 'nature' - its past, present and future. Contributors discuss the impact on our daily life of recent developments on biotechnologies, electronic media and ecological politics. Increasingly, scientific theories and models have been taken up as cultural metaphors that have material effects in transforming 'ways of seeing' and 'structures of feeling'.
The book addresses the issue of whether political and cultural debates about the body and environment can take place without reference to 'nature' or the 'natural'. This collection considers how we might 'think' a future developing from emergent scientific theories and discourses. What cultural forms may be produced when new knowledges challenge and undermine traditional ways of conceiving the 'natural'.

Series Information:
Futures: New Perspectives for Cultural Analysis

This text investigates the future for travelling in a world whose boundaries are shifting and dissolving. The contributors bring together popular and critical discourses of travel to explore questions of identity and politics; history and narration; collecting and representing other cultures; and tourism.

We are living in an age when 'nature' seems to be on the brink of extinction yet, at the same time, 'nature' is becoming increasingly ubiquitous and unstable as a category for representation and debate.
F uturenatural brings together leading theorists of culture and science to discuss the concept of 'nature' - its past, present and future. Contributors discuss the impact on our daily life of recent developments in biotechnologies, electronic media and ecological politics. Increasingly, scientific theories and models have been taken up as cultural metaphores that have material effects in transforming 'ways of seeing' and `structures of feeling'.
The book addresses the issue of whether political and cultural debates about the body and the environment can take place without reference to 'nature' or the `natural'. This collection considers how we might 'think' a future developing from emergent scientific theories and discourses. What cultural forms may be produced when new knowledges challenge and undermine traditional ways of conceiving the 'natural' ?

American artist Nancy Spero (b.1929) concentrates on the depiction of women: mythological women, movie women, tortured women. Inspired by classical and modern sources, she collages and imprints her contemporary goddesses on to long, papyrus-like friezes that scroll around museum walls. Her subject matter, which has ranged from the writings of Artaud to the Vietnam War, mirrors her life. Working in Paris in the cultural ferment of the 1960s, she moved to New York in the 1970s to co-establish the feminist gallery A.I.R. and to join with artists and critics such as Leon Golub, Robert Morris and Lucy R Lippard in forming the Art Workers' Coalition. Since the 1980s she has attracted international acclaim, her exquisite works giving form to feminist issues and new critical discourses. The Survey by Jon Bird, cultural theorist and curator of the first British retrospective of Spero's work, discusses developments in her practice since the 1950s. Contemporary art scholar and critic Jo Anna Isaak talks with the artist about her life and work. Art historian Sylvere Lotringer, Edtior of Semiotext(e) and author of Overexposed, focuses on her 1993 installation at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In recognition of the impact Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove made on her, Spero has chosen a scene from the screenplay; key excerpts from Gynesis: Configurations of Woman and Modernity by feminist theorist Alice Jardine on the place of women in a patriarchal culture complete the Artist's Choice section. Also included are a selection of Spero's own writings, many published here for the first time.

This sumptuously illustrated volume, edited by eminent war historian Joanna Bourke, offers a comprehensive visual, cultural and historical account of the ways in which armed conflict has been represented in art. Covering the last two centuries, the book shows how the artistic portrayal of war has changed, from a celebration of heroic exploits to a more modern, truthful depiction of warfare and its consequences. Featuring illustrations by artists including Paul Nash, Judy Chicago, Pablo Picasso, Melanie Friend, Francis Bacon, Kathe Kollwitz, Yves Klein, Robert Rauschenberg, Dora Meeson, Otto Dix and many others, as well as those who are often overlooked, such as children, women, non-European artists and prisoners of war, this extensive survey is a fitting and timely contribution to the understanding, memory and commemoration of war, and will appeal to a wide audience interested in warfare, art, history or politics. Introduction by Joanna Bourke, with essays by Jon Bird, Monica Bohm-Duchen, Joanna Bourke, Grace Brockington, James Chapman, Michael Corris, Patrick Crogan, Jo Fox, Paul Gough, Gary Haines, Clare Makepeace, Sue Malvern, Sergiusz Michalski, Manon Pignot, Anna Pilkington, Nicholas J. Saunders, John Schofield, John D. Szostak, Sarah Wilson and Jay Winter.