Rene Steinke

This uniquely designed book presents the first survey of contemporary artist Toni Dove's pioneering work at the crossroads of performance, cinema, and virtual reality. Credited as one of the innovators of "interactive cinema," since the early 1990s, Toni Dove has created an oeuvre of "speculative technology" blending computer driven interactivity, live-mix performance and installation in projects which examine histories of consumer culture through evolving technologies. Dove's collaborative practice brings together visual artists, filmmakers, fashion designers, robotics engineers, computer programmers, musicians, actors, and writers-each at the vanguard of his or her own metier. Accompanying a major exhibition, this distinctively designed volume presents four of Dove's most notable works, including the debut of her newest work The Dress That Eats Souls, which exists at the forefront of computer and robotic technology.

Smoke has as many different scents as skin. Part of the pleasure is not knowing what it will be -- sulfurous or closer to incense or airier and sweeter as I imagine the smell of clouds.Ella is a connoisseur of fire, a woman enthralled by it as other women are by love. She savors the seductive promise of a spark, the caress of a curling wisp of smoke, the all-consuming hunger of a spreading blaze. Ella's heart seethes with a rage that can be spoken only with tongues of flame.In her remarkable first novel, Rene Steinke has created a narrator so lyrical and lucid in her madness as to raise the book to the level of romance. Trapped in a sleepy Indiana town, torn by inner demons that drive her to pyromania and promiscuity, Ella is at once entirely original and unforgettably real.As she struggles to come to terms with her family's tormented past and her own uncertain future, she draws the mesmerized reader ever deeper into her scorched soul, revealing a sensuality that will spiral into final, fiery destruction -- unless it can be quenched by love.

Established as a fashion avatar and controversial Greenwich Village celebrity in the early 1900s, the Baroness Elsa, a German émigré and troublemaking artist, stalks the streets donning unusual garments and poses nude for Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp while witnessing World War I, technological innovations, and a shift in the lives of independent-minded women. By the author of The Fires. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.