An Intimate Distance

In a series of original readings of the work of artists from Kathe Kollwitz and Georgia O'Keeffe to Helen Cahdwick and Laura Godfrey Issacs, Rosemary Betterton explores how women artists have addressed the changing relationship between women, the body and its representation in art. In detailed critical essays that range from the analysis of maternal imagery in the work of German artists at the turn of the century, to the unrepresented body in contemporary abstract painting. Betterton argues that women's art practices offer ways of engaging with our fascinations and fears of the female body. Reflecting the shift within feminist art over the last decade,An Intimate Distancesets the reinscription of the body within women's art practice in the context of current debates on the body, including reproductive science, maternal subjectivity and the concept of "body horror" in relation to food, aging and sex. Drawing on recent theories of embodiment developed within feminist philosphyand psychoanalytic theory, the essays reveal how th epermeable boundaries between nature and culture, the female body and technology are being crossed in the work of women artists.

Rosemary Betterton teaches art history and critical studies at Sheffield Hallam University.