Cindy Sherman

The perfect introduction to the life and work of Cindy Sherman, this book presents her as her own subject matter and traces how she has used make-up, prosthetics and props to inhabit a large number of personae. It invites readers to consider appearance and identity, and how female stereotypes have been perpetuated by both media and the art world. The text surveys key bodies of work, from the seminal Untitled Film Stills of the 1970s, which reference film noir and directors like Alfred Hitchcock and Jacques Tourneur, to the shift into color photography in the 1980s with Centerfolds. It tracks Sherman’s move to let props and prosthetics stand in for the artist herself, critiquing pornography and war photography, and then reintroduces her through History Portraits, Clowns and Headshots, and newer, large-scale murals and epic landscapes that explore more ambiguous identities. Written by Paul Moorhouse, the book provides a concise, accessible overview for both new readers and established fans. It is a 144-page illustrated hardcover published by Phaidon Press in 2014.

Readers will gain a sense of how Sherman’s work evolved over several decades and how she used repetition, disguise and appropriation to challenge concepts of self-presentation and gendered representation. The book also highlights shifts between black-and-white and color imagery and situates her work within broader art-historical contexts, while describing the ongoing relevance of her investigations into identity and media.

• Self as subject to critique appearance and identity
• Early Untitled Film Stills reference noir cinema
• Color photography in 1980s Centerfolds
• Props and prosthetics used to represent subjects
• History Portraits reframe Old Masters
• Later works include Clowns and Headshots