War and Art A Visual History of Modern Conflict Joanna Bourke

‘War and Art offers a visual, cultural, and historical account of depictions of war and its aftermath over the past 200 years. The artists and representations cross a variety of media – from paintings, prints and photography, and comics to film, digital art, and graffiti – in an effort to visualize war, memory, commemorative actions, and outcomes . . . Richly illustrated with more than 400 illustrations and including notes for each essay and a brief bibliography of about 50 sources, the volume will be of interest to readers in history, art history, military history, ethnic and cultural identity, memory studies, and related fields of material and cultural heritage . . . Recommended.’ — Choice

‘It is salutary that one of the leading historians of war and violence, Joanna Bourke, whose work defined how these concepts are thought of in relation to gender, emotions and the body, sought to redress such issues through the prism of visual culture. The result is a large, lavishly illustrated tome expertly edited by Bourke, with 16 chapters by as many scholars . . . the book has an impressive arc and span: a survey, reader and primer, all-in-one . . . War and Art stands out for the way in which it brings together a heterogeneous range of artistic practices and visual modalities – from oil painting to aircraft fuselage, feature films to drone images, embroidery to virtual reality. This rich span allows it to make historical sense of the endless complexity of forms, ideologies, discourses, and ends to which art lends itself in relation to war, as well as to give readers a fuller account of the different subject positions involved. This comprehensive volume, ambitious in scope and scale, is a welcome addition to the literature and a reference point for why visuality matters to the humanities as never before.’ — Journal of Contemporary History