Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This comprehensive retrospective of Sophie Calle not only celebrates the breadth of her iconoclastic work but also leads to a deeper understanding of her unique artistic vision. The work of conceptual artist Sophie Calle embraces numerous media: photography, storytelling, film, and memoir, to name a few. Often controversial, Calle's projects explore issues of voyeurism, intimacy, and identity as she secretly investigates, reconstructs and documents the lives of strangers - whether she is inviting them to sleep in her bed, trailing them through a hotel, or following them through the city. Taking on multiple roles - detective, documentarian, behavioral scientist and diarist - Calle turns the interplay between life and art on its head. The book presents Calle's best-known works, including "The Blind", "No Sex Last Night", "The Hotel", "The Address Book" and "A Woman Vanishes", as well as lesser known and earlier projects that have largely escaped the public eye. The book also includes diary excerpts and video stills, along with three critical essays, a revealing interview with the artist and a dialogue with fellow artist Damien Hirst.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

French conceptual artist Sophie Calle has developed artistic responses to many of the most important intellectual currents of the late 20th century, particularly those dealing with identity, voyeurism, and absence. This wonderful book, published in conjunction with the M'as-tu Vue (or Can You See Me) exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, is the first English-language overview of Calle's work. Two critical essays written by the organizers of the exhibition and a lengthy interview with Calle aptly place her art in broader cultural context. Calle's interest in notions of authorship and her collaboration with Jean Baudrillard and Paul Auster position her work at the intersection of important intellectual/artistic currents. The illustrations-glossy, postcard-sized pictures of her exhibitions tipped into the pages of the book-give a you-are-there feel. Because this book functions as a neat summary of the major themes animating contemporary art and philosophy, it would complement texts about critical theory, popular culture, and fine arts. A small quibble: Calle's examination of femininity-a central theme in her art-is left unanalyzed here. Apart from this, enthusiastically recommended for public and academic libraries.-Katherine C. Adams, Bowdoin Coll. Lib., Brunswick, ME (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Is it just a coincidence that this fantastical catalogue of French artist Sophie Calle's projects over the years ever so slightly resembles, in its intimate size (23.5 cm x 16.8 cm) and padded cover, a diary? Indeed, the first "piece," which accompanies Calle's exhibition "M'as-tu vue" (meaning, alternately, "did you see me?" or "a show-off") at the Pompidou Center in Paris this spring, consists of excerpts from Calle's own journal. Calle's work is at its core an exploration of the seemingly infinite number of facets of identity, either mimetic, representational or essential. She has followed strangers to Venice ( "Suite venitienne,"); had herself followed by a detective, twice ("The Shadow" and "Twenty Years Later"); contacted names found in a lost address book ("The Address Book"); worked as a chambermaid ("The Hotel"); followed instructions given to her by writer Paul Auster for "How to Improve Life in New York City" ("Gotham Handbook") and lived out certain episodes from his fictional character, Maria, in Leviathan ("The Chromatic Diet" and "Days Under the Sign of B, C & W"); filmed her disintegrating relationship ("No Sex Last Night"); was psychologically evaluated in a collaboration with Damien Hirst ("Psychological Assessment"); and developed negatives from the burned apartment of a missing woman ("A Woman Vanishes"), among many other enticing projects. In the pieces, ranging from 1978 to 2003 and generously documented in 500 color illustrations, it is Calle's own intense emotional involvement that prevents them from becoming cold, ironic, detached or overly "conceptual." The preface by Alfred Pacquement and introductory essays by editor Christine Marcel and Yve-Alain Bois are heavy on academic artspeak, but luckily fail to block the immediacy of Calle's intimate reflections. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Yve-Alain Bois is professor of the history of art at Harvard University.

(Bowker Author Biography)