Routledge Revivals: In Modernity's Wake (1989)

First published in 1988, this book attempts to tackle the problem of how to write about art, culture, and the issues of postmodernism in a style appropriate to what is being claimed. The letters are written on art's behalf to a range of institutions and individuals, and have as their recurring concern the relation between art, culture and representation - both art as representation and how art is represented to, and for, the surrounding culture. They explore the context and viability of art through a range of themes, including writing, the aestheticisation of everyday life, style, design pleasure, fragmentation, hyphenation, technology, and the museum - drawing on materials from the visual arts, music, literature, post-structuralism, contemporary criticism, philosophy, and sociology.

Michael Phillipson

Watin; thuh lettaz; To the Post-man Telex to Noah To Paolo Uccello, c/o S.S. Sprit of Florence To Dr. Kopf, The Director, The Multi-National Museum of the Art of the Now To Martin Heidegger, c/o Up There To Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, c/o Sublime Cottage, The Beyond To The Chairman, National Board of Garden Guardians, Memo: re Your Annual 'Glory of the Garden' Art Competition To Roland Barthes, c/o Les Champs Elysées To Dr. Stufa, the Stufa Azurotherapy Clinic To Ma, (M/S Enid Ameurunculus), 763 Whortleberry Avenue, Northern District, Subsuburborough To Jack Derippa, c/o Abroad; Appendix: Art's Body, A Largely Sedentary Masque for Three Personae; wayout