Filled with a wide array of illustrations, this book offers a fresh perspective on surrealism as it spotlights the important role that North American women artists played in the movement. The surrealist movement in art is most often identified with male artists, many of whom objectified women in their paintings, casting them as sexual or symbolic ideals. Conversely, the female artists of the movement delved primarily into their own subconscious and dreams. This volume features the work of
48 Mexican and U.S.-based women artists whose contributions to the surrealist movement span more than four decades and whose work was both influential and radical in its own right. Thematically arranged, it includes more than 250 full-color images along with several essays exploring the effects of
geography and gender on the movement. This unique book illustrates surrealism as a gateway to self-discovery, especially in North America, where women artists were freed from oppressive European traditions and the vagaries of war. From 1931, the year of Lee Miller's first surreal photograph, to 1968,
when Yayoi Kusama presented her landmark happening "Alice in Wonderland" in New York's Central Park, the artists and works depicted here are both significant and extraordinary in their explorations of personal and universal truths.

Reader Reviews

Shawn Marie Hardy

(5/5)

May 10, 2024

This is an amazing book for surrealists and lovers of surrealism. It's an oversized coffee table book that is chock full of beautiful full-color illustrations. Informative, interesting, and a must-have for fans of the genre. I enjoyed the little bios at the back of the book.

Grady

A Timely, Controversial Exhibition CatalogueIN WONDERLAND is due to open at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art this month and promises to be one of the fines exhibits presented by this now formidable institution. The subtitle is revealing: THE SURREALIST ADVENTURES OF WOMEN ARTISTS IN MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES as this exhibition fills a significant gap in our studies of the Surrealist Art movement; women artists have all but been excluded in the ranks of the Surrealist School. Now, thanks t...

Cristina

All my dreams in a book. If only if only if only, I'd seen this exhibition in person. I believe that this book would appeal to anyone who enjoys any one of the following: well designed art catalogues, surrealism, latin american art, women artists, history, art history, women, art, books. Okay so... that's you isn't it?

Nick Bachman

It was a beautiful exhibition at LACMA and the book captures most of the magic. Love returning here anytime I want.

Tanya

(4/5)

It was incredibly hard to part with this library book. I will have to add it to the long wish list. The essays included are what you would expect in a catalogue- far too all-encompassing and sweeping to really grab you. The essayists really had to strain to draw parallels between these divergent artists. Luckily, the works depicted were fantastic. I originally got the book to explore Leonora Carrington. I've now found a deep love of Dorothea Tanning, Remedios Varo, and a few others. An absolute

Andy

Used copies of this book go for $300. I actually discovered this book in the waiting room at my dentists' office. Wonder if he'll sell it to me.

Lily

Well, all my friends are in here! Some I've known for years, others I am meeting for the first time. What a bunch of dream boats! The point of many of these essays is to explore the role of women in the surrealist movement and the surrealist's influence on the contemporary feminist movement. By repositioning women as meaningful contributors to the artistic movement rather than just as muses or "femme-enfants," this book marvelously explains how women took surrealism and made it their own, even u...

Mir

A decent introduction, although it suffers from trying to cover too much. Surrealism in post-war Mexico and surrealism in 1960s America, for instance, aren't so closely connected that the need to be in the same study, necessarily. I liked the more focused Surreal Friends: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo and Kati Horna more.Now, here are some pictures that I wish came with novels:remedios varo, escapesylvia fein, lady with white knightmaya deren, meshes of afternoonmuriel streeter, chess queens...

Meg

(2/5)

I appreciated the selections of art that they chose to incorporate, however, I am not the biggest fan of surrealism.

(3/5)

I really like Kay Sage's art... is there a book on her that I should check out? Help me, GR art people!

Yvonne Thälker

This book is truly amazing. It is both a beautiful coffee table book and a useful one for research. It covers so many different women surrealists, and covers a range of topics regarding them...family life, relationships to each other and male surrealists, their inner lives and inspirations, etc. There are separate chapters for artists working in Mexico, artists working in the United States and surrealist photography. This is a great book for Surrealist art or women artist novices to dive right i...

Denver Public Library

Having spent a good deal of time trying to immerse myself in as much surrealist media as possible (not just painting but photography, writing, and games), I am awed at what this collection covers. Works by some of the best known women surrealists, Louise Bourgeois and Frida Kahlo, are mixed in with those that did not experience the same levels of fame. This collection explores what it meant to embrace surrealism and blends in the struggle of being a woman in a traditionally male-dominated art en...

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In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States

In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States

In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States

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Reader Reviews