Lee Bul: Life and Work

The comprehensive and definitive monograph on Lee Bul, one of the most prominent contemporary artists of her time.

Born in South Korea in 1964, Lee Bul is one of the most important contemporary artists of her generation―a daring visionary who resolutely questions the world around her through extraordinary, otherworldly acts of imagination. Across multiple decades and a wide range of media, including performance art, sculpture, installation, and painting, she has been at the forefront of contemporary artistic practice, exploring such topics as the body, gender, failed utopias, and our increasingly technologized existence.

Lee Bul: Life and Work is an unparalleled survey of the artist’s career to date, from her fearless performance pieces of the late 1980s to her visually arresting 2024 commission for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Highly illustrated throughout, and with contributions from art historians, curators, and critics, Lee Bul is a fascinating and in-depth exploration of a vital, groundbreaking artist.

415 color illustrations

Lee Bul (b. 1964, Yeongju) is a mixed-media artist living and working in Seoul. Over her career, Bul’s practice has spanned sculpture, painting, performance, and immersive art, reflecting on themes including progressivism, body politics, and posthumanism.

Doryun Chong is artistic director and chief curator of M+, Hong Kong. He is the coeditor of M+ Collections: Highlights, Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now, and Picasso/Asia: A Conversation.

June Young Kwak is head of exhibitions at Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul. Together with Chong, Kwak is the cocurator of Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now, with support from Heyeon Kim, a curator at Leeum Museum of Art, and Sunny Cheung, a curator at M+.