Tacita Dean (October Files)

A highly anticipated and richly illustrated anthology of essays on the work of artist Tacita Dean.

This volume explores the deeply-influential work of Tacita Dean, recognized increasingly as one of the key artists of our times. Emerging initially as part of the generation of the so-called Young British Artists in the 1990s, Dean has reinvented the manner in which artists use analogue mediums such as drawing, photography, and film, prompting major questions in her work around the issues of time, memory, and history.

Dean’s films embrace long takes that achieve a near-photographic stillness; they have been dedicated to obsolescent objects or stranded buildings, failed quests, and extraordinary figures—usually other artists and writers—nearing the end of their lives. But Dean’s contemplative films have been rigorously reinvented as a form over the course of her career and linked to a widening series of projects involving writing, chalk drawings, found photographs, dance, and theater. This anthology explores the artist’s expansive practice, gathering essays and interviews by authors from an array of disciplines including art criticism, philosophy, literature, and film. Spanning twenty-five years of the artist’s career, the volume includes writings by George Baker, Douglas Crimp, Brian Dillon, Briony Fer, Hal Foster, Mark Godfrey, Louise Hornby, Rosalind Krauss, Elisabeth Lebovici, Jean-Luc Nancy, Tamara Trodd, Marina Warner, Peter Wollen, and the artist herself.

George Baker is Professor and Chair of Art History at UCLA. An editor of October magazine for the last twenty-five years, he previously edited the October Files 5, on James Coleman (MIT Press). His books include The Artwork Caught by the Tail (MIT Press) and Lateness and Longing.

Annie Rana is an independent researcher based in Los Angeles. She was previously Senior Project Manager at the Getty Research Institute, where she oversaw the Getty Research Portal. She worked with Tacita Dean on the artist’s edition Monet Hates Me and on a related book of the same name.