Review

May, 1, 2014

Choice Magazine

Page 1579

The Reckoning: Women Artists of the New Millennium, by Eleanor Heartney et al. Prestel, 2013. 256p bibl index ISBN 9783791347592 pbk, $39.95

The Reckoning is a jargon-free, very well-written volume from the "third wave" of international feminist art publications. It offers attentive readers another potential version of the historiography of feminist art—from Womanhouse, Judy Chicago, Miriam Shapiro, Lynda Benglis, and Lina Nochlin to the present. It is also designed and written to be the true sequel to After the Revolution: Women Who Transformed Contemporary Art (2nd ed., 2013; 1st ed., CH, Jan'08, 45-2415). In addition to Eleanor Heartney, the contributors to both The Reckoning and the second edition of After the Revolution are Helaine Posner, Nancy Princenthal, and Sue Scott. Though this new book has 100 fewer pages than the second edition of After the Revolution, it is up-to-date with women's multimedia, performance art, installations, and photography. Feminist erotica abounds as several artists discuss working with pornographic sources. The Reckoning more than doubles the number of featured artists in After the Revolution to 25, with text, illustrations, and ample color reproductions. Featuring 11 graphs, it is arranged in four categories titled "Bad Girls," "Spellbound," "Domestic Disturbances," and "History Lessons."

Summing Up: Recommended. ★★ Graduate students and above.—M. M. Hamel-Schwulst, formerly, Towson University