Fear and art in the contemporary world

Exploring the work of a broad range of artists, including Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltanski, Louise Bourgeois, Nan Goldin, Douglas Gordon, Antony Gormley, Mike Kelley, Annette Messager, Tracey Moffatt, Tony Oursler, Cornelia Parker, Gerhard Richter, Gregor Schneider and Rachel Whiteread, Fear and Art in the Contemporary World investigates the manifestations of fear in our culture and the development of an aesthetics of fear. The artists in this book use a wide range of media to convey an array of states of fear – body terror and anxiety, trauma and phobias; feelings of dislocation, displacement and alienation; narratives of guilt and shame; virtual fear and fear as entertainment. Drawing on the history of medicine, neuropsychology, sociology and philosophy as well as the history of art and culture, this book shines new light on the role of images in the current landscape of fear.