Our Beautiful, Dry and Distant Texts

Our Beautiful, Dry and Distant Texts examines art historical writing as an expressive medium, capable of emotion and reflection - and therefore deserving of serious consideration for its own sake, as the testament of art history and of individual historians. Drawing on analyses of texts by Derrida, Deleuze, and other leading critics, as well as illustrations of artworks from various cultures, Elkins constructs an eloquent plea for circumspection in the entire endeavour of trying to force images into words, and in the curious vocation of writing the history of art.