Orlan: Carnal Art

This is the first complete monograph devoted to the works and theories of Orlan, without a doubt today's most challenging and thought-provoking performance artist. She began her highly unconventional career at the age of 17 with a series of works using photographs of her own body, which has become her art "medium," her primary creative voice.

Working beyond the limits of body art, in her manifesto on "Carnal Art", Orlan wrote that her performances are "a selfportrait in the classical sense, yet realized through the technology of its time. Lying between disfiguration and figuration, it is an inscription in flesh." In 1999, using the operating room as a studio, she underwent a series of filmed plastic surgery operations to modify her own body-her canvas-including the placing of cheekbone implants under the skin of her forehead.

Here is a detailed, analytical text including a biography, a chronology of her exhibitions, and critical studies of the significance of her Carnal Art performances-a must-read for anyone interested in currents in contemporary art.