Philippa Snow

'A brutal and brilliant study of female celebrity ... a joy to read, fizzing with intelligence' Megan Nolan, Telegraph 'Wildly entertaining' Dazed 'Snow's prose is beautiful, white-hot and breathless, like a sports car speeding through the canyon' Observer --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How does an icon become an icon? How did Anna Nicole Smith model herself on Marilyn Monroe? What connects Lindsay Lohan with Elizabeth Taylor? How is self-made beauty Pamela Anderson like trans bond girl Caroline 'Tula' Cossey? In a series of interconnected essays about pairs of famous women, award-nominated essayist and art critic Philippa Snow explores the echoes and connections between a constellation of female stars and lays bare the artful and gruelling demands of femininity - from the golden age of Hollywood to the Instagram era. Full of the fascinating, entertaining and lurid details you might expect from the lives of mega-famous celebrities, dissected with icicle-sharp intelligence and rendered in stylish, flamboyant prose, Philippa Snow's first full-length non-fiction work is a radically insightful book about the complex meanings and layers of femininity in a male-dominated world.

A renewed examination of Jeffrey Deitch’s pivotal exhibition Originally exhibited in 1992, Jeffrey Deitch’s groundbreaking exhibition Post Human brought together the work of thirty-six young artists interested in new frontiers of body and identity transformation. The prescient exhibition, which traveled to five international venues, introduced the art world to posthumanism - how the human body continues to merge with and diverge from technology. Both the show and it catalogue, which featured a unique visual essay and innovative design, helped set the agenda for art discourse in the 1990s. More than thirty years later, Deitch revitalized Post Human at his Los Angeles gallery, bringing the themes of the original back to the present. The show’s 2024 iteration presented several key figures who participated in the original exhibition in dialogue with emerging contemporary artists whose boundary-pushing work explores how these themes, particularly recent forms of technology such as AI, have evolved over the course of the twenty-first century. This timely publication revisits artworks from both iterations of the show. Readers will discover color photography of the featured works, along with Deitch’s iconic visual essay from the original catalogue and text contributions from contemporary philosopher Rosi Braidotti and critic Philippa Snow. Together, they form a printed testament to the show’s indelible impact and Deitch’s everlasting influence on the art world. Featured artists include: Isabelle Albuquerque, Matthew Barney, Ivana Bašic, Frank Benson, Ashley Bickerton, Maurizio Cattelan, Chris Cunningham, John Currin, Alex Da Corte, Olivia Erlanger, Jana Euler, Rachel Feinstein, Urs Fischer, Pippa Garner, Robert Gober, Hugh Hayden, Damien Hirst, Tishan Hsu, Pierre Huyghe, Anne Imhof, Alex Israel, Arthur Jafa, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Mike Kelley, Josh Kline, Jeff Koons, Paul McCarthy, Sam McKinniss, Mariko Mori, Takashi Murakami, Wangechi Mutu, Cady Noland, Charles Ray, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith, Hajime Sorayama, Anna Uddenberg, Cajsa von Zeipel, Jeff Wall, Jordan Wolfson, and Anicka Yi.

'Turns female celebrity inside-out. One of the most enjoyable books of the year' Nicole Flattery, author of Show Them A Good Time'An instant classic from the sharpest cultural critic working today. I couldn't put it down' Allie Rowbottom, author of Aesthetica---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------How does an icon become an icon? How did Anna Nicole Smith model herself on Marilyn Monroe? What connects Lindsay Lohan with Elizabeth Taylor? How is self-made beauty Pamela Anderson like trans bond girl Caroline 'Tula' Cossey?In a series of interconnected essays about pairs of famous women, award-nominated essayist and art critic Philippa Snow explores the echoes and connections between a constellation of female stars and lays bare the artful and gruelling demands of femininity - from the golden age of Hollywood to the Instagram era. Full of the fascinating, entertaining and lurid details you might expect from the lives of mega-famous celebrities, dissected with icicle-sharp intelligence and rendered in stylish, flamboyant prose, Philippa Snow's first full-length non-fiction work is a radically insightful book about the complex meanings and layers of femininity in a male-dominated world.

We know that celebrities can make great muses: think of the work of Richard Phillips, who has painted an entire series of works inspired by Lindsay Lohan, Robert Pattinson, and Miley Cyrus, or of Urs Fischer, who recently showed a life-sized candle in the shape of Leonardo DiCaprio. Notoriously, the art collector Peter Brant commissioned the wickedly satirical Italian American artist Maurizio Cattelan to make a sculpture of his wife, the supermodel Stephanie Seymour. The work was technically called Stephanie, but became known in the industry as 'Trophy Wife'. With the sculpture valued at 1.5 million dollars, while Seymour herself is purportedly worth one hundred million dollars, you might be tempted to wonder which has the claim to be the 'better' work of art. In this illustrated essay, critic Philippa Snow asks whether all great, or iconic, celebrities can be considered technically self-authored artworks in and of themselves. Drawing on a wide range of cultural references from the past two decades, she proposes that increasingly - as celebrities' private lives become more visible and thus more art-directed, and especially as plastic surgery becomes de rigueur for even the most minor public figures - celebrity itself can be a medium for contemporary art, a form of mythmaking and image-making that is every bit as complex, conceptual, and compelling as the work of a traditional artist.

A few weeks before he died, Hunter S. Thompson left an answerphone message for Jackass' Johnny Knoxville: "I might be coming to Baton Rouge... and if I do I will call you, because I will be looking to have some fun, which as you know usually means violence." Fun does not, of course, mean violence for most people. Those who choose to make a hobby, a career or an art practice out of injury are wired differently — subject to unusual motivations, and quite often powered by an ardent death-drive. In Which as You Know Means Violence, writer and art critic Philippa Snow analyses the subject of pain, injury and sadomasochism in performance, from the more rarefied context of contemporary art to the more lowbrow realm of pranksters, stuntmen and stuntwomen, and uncategorisable, danger-loving YouTube freaks. In a world where violence — of the market, of climate change, of capitalism — is part of our everyday lives, Which as You Know Means Violence focuses on those who enact violence on themselves, for art or entertainment, and analyses the role that violence plays in twenty-first century culture.

David Lynch has been accused for decades of sexism and even misogyny in his work, due largely to frequent depictions of violence against women. Yet others see in Lynch’s work the deification of the female, and actresses like Laura Dern and Naomi Watts jump at every opportunity to work with him. “He is the master of the juxtaposition of the creepy and the sweet, the sexual and the chaste,” wrote W’s Lynn Hirschberg. “And at the heart of this tense, intriguing friction, you will always find Lynch’s women.” The Women of Lynch is a deep, provocative dive into this paradox, featuring ten essays, thought pieces and impressionistic interpretations of Lynch’s depiction of women on screen, by an eclectic array of accomplished female critics, scholars, performers, and writers, each tackling this vexing conundrum in her own unique way. The book also contains an interview with actress MÄdchen Amick (Shelly Johnson in Twin Peaks) where she gives first hand knowledge on what it is like to be a woman of Lynch. Lisa Hession interviews the original woman of Lynch, Charlotte Stewart (Eraserhead, Twin Peaks) about being the actress with longest active span of working with David Lynch.This is the first essay book about the work of David Lynch by all female writers. Readers will enjoy The Women of Lynch: A Collection of Essays.This book contains essays by:x. An Introduction by Philippa Snow1. The Uncanny Electricity of David Lynch’s Women by Leigh Kellmann Kolb2. Women’s Films: Melodrama and Women’s Trauma in the Films of David Lynch by Lindsay Hallam3. A Colorless Sky: On the Whiteness of Twin Peaks by Melanie McFarland4. Warding off the Darkness with Coffee and Pie by Mallory O'Meara5. “This is where we talk, Shelly.” An Interview with MÄdchen Amick by Lindsey Bowden6. Welcome to the Bipolar Silencio Club! by Hannah Klein7. The Triple Goddess by Lauren Fox8. Isabella Rossellini: The Shocking “Real” in Blue Velvet by Kathleen Fleming9. Tea And Sympathy: Mrs. Kendal and The Elephant Man by Rebecca Paller10. Jade: Ornamental Gem or Protective Talisman? A Character Study by Marisa C. Hayes11. "Mary X Marks The Spot." An Interview with Charlotte Stewart by Lisa Hession12. Impressions of Lynch: Journaling a Requiem by Mya McBriarEdited by David BushmanConcept by Scott RyanFront Cover by Blake MorrowArt by Wayne Barnes & Hannah Fortune