“The first comprehensive monograph of the acclaimed Austrian artist Renate Bertlmann presents a sweeping survey of her oeuvre.”

The artist Renate Bertlmann, who lives and works in Vienna, is a preeminent representative of the Feminist Avant-Garde. This book presents 250 illustrations that unfold a panorama of a creative output spanning over five decades. The artist's inspiration for her work is "amo ergo sum" (I love therefore I am). Five international writers discuss the themes of "Pornography," "Irony," and "Utopia" in Bertlmann's oeuvre. In her work, she deftly arranges clashes between opposites: sexual pleasure and asceticism, female and male, soft and hard, attraction and repulsion. Ambivalent feelings between tenderness and aggression come to the fore, fueling Bertlmann's subversive politics.

An in-depth interview, a filmography, and a chronological list of her performances round out this book compiled by SAMMLUNG VERBUND Collection in Vienna, an outstanding art collection focused on the Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970s. Berthold Ecker sketches the evolution of the motif of the bride; Jessica Morgan interprets Renate Bertlmann's work in light of Freudian psychoanalysis; an interview by Gabriele Schor addresses the affinities between performance art and staged photography; Abigail Solomon-Godeau situates Bertlmann's work in the history of feminism; and Katharina Sykora explores the subject of skin and its capacity for separation as well as connection.

Published on the occasion of her retrospective exhibition at Sammlung Verbund, Vienna, Austria (28 January - 18 May 2016), texts by Gabriele Schor, Jessica Morgan, Berthold Äcker, Abigail Solomon-Goldeau, Katharina Sykora