Face: A Visual Odyssey

Helfand, Jessica

ISBN 10: 0262043424 / ISBN 13: 9780262043427

Published by MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2019

About this Item

Cloth, ix, 261 pages, illustrations (some colour); 26 cm. PRESENTATION COPY. Signed by the author, with a personalized inscription. A near-fine copy, lower right corners lightly bumped. Dust jacket protected in a mylar cover. Profusely illustrated. *** "An elaborately illustrated A to Z of the face, from historical mugshots to Instagram posts. By turns alarming and awe-inspiring, 'Face' offers up an elaborately illustrated A to Z-from the didactic anthropometry of the late-nineteenth century to the selfie-obsessed zeitgeist of the twenty-first. Jessica Helfand looks at the cultural significance of the face through a critical lens, both as social currency and as palimpsest of history. Investigating everything from historical mugshots to Instagram posts, she examines how the face has been perceived and represented over time; how it has been instrumentalized by others; and how we have reclaimed it for our own purposes. From vintage advertisements for a 'nose adjuster' to contemporary artists who reconsider the visual construction of race, Face delivers an intimate yet kaleidoscopic adventure while posing universal questions about identity." - Publisher. *** CONTENTS: Prologue; Anthropometry; Biometrics + bias; Caricature + close-ups; Diagnosis; Eugenics; Facsimilies + fragility; The gaze; Heredity; Identity; Judgment; Keepsakes; Likenesses + lies; Masks + mirrors; Narcissism; Othering; Physiognomy; Quackery; Relatability; Surveillance + spectatorship; Typecasting; Users + the uncanny; Vanity; Wit; Xenophobia; You; Zeitgeist. Size: 4to.

Seller Inventory # 100952

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Face: A Visual Odyssey
• Publisher: MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262043424
• ISBN 13: 9780262043427
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: SIGNED
• Book Type: Collectible
• Seller catalogs:
  • Genre & Subject::Caricature & Cartoons
  • Photography::Subjects & Themes::Portraits
  • Women Artists
  • XXXL: Jumbo
  • New Books
  • XXX::COLLECTIBLES

About this title

Synopsis

An elaborately illustrated A to Z of the face, from historical mugshots to Instagram posts.

By turns alarming and awe-inspiring, Face offers up an elaborately illustrated A to Z―from the didactic anthropometry of the late-nineteenth century to the selfie-obsessed zeitgeist of the twenty-first.

Jessica Helfand looks at the cultural significance of the face through a critical lens, both as social currency and as palimpsest of history. Investigating everything from historical mugshots to Instagram posts, she examines how the face has been perceived and represented over time; how it has been instrumentalized by others; and how we have reclaimed it for our own purposes. From vintage advertisements for a “nose adjuster” to contemporary artists who reconsider the visual construction of race, Face delivers an intimate yet kaleidoscopic adventure while posing universal questions about identity.

About the Author

Jessica Helfand is a designer, artist, and writer. Educated at Yale University, where she has taught for more than twenty years, she is a cofounder of Design Observer and the author of numerous books on visual and cultural criticism. The first Henry Wolf Resident at the American Academy in Rome, Helfand has been a Director's Guest at the Civitella Foundation and a fellow at the Bogliasco Foundation. She will be the artist in residence at the California Institute of Technology in the winter of 2020.