Books in the Art and Series series

Featuring the work of artists such as Damien Hirst, Christine Borland, Bill Viola and Helen Chadwick, and art-science collaborative ventures involving Dorothy Cross, Eduardo Kac and Stelarc, it looks at the way new scientific explanations for the nature of human consciousness can influence our interpretation of art, at the.

Takes the neglected role of humour in art. This book looks back to comic masters such as Hogarth and Daumier and to Dada, Surrealism and Pop Art, asking what makes us laugh and why. It explores the use of comedy in art from satire and irony to pun, parody and black and bawdy humour.

She discusses too the various collaborations and crossovers between art and advertising: the work of artist, director and creative Tony Kaye; adman turned collector Charles Saatchi and the issues of celebrity and branding that surround him; and the endorsement of art by highly branded products such as Absolut Vodka, to show that art.

Talks about the work of 20th-century artists, from Hans Bellmer through to Nobuyoshi Araki, from Robert Mapplethorpe to Annie Sprinkle, and from Hermann Nitsch to Paul McCarthy. Here, the author argues that some works, regardless of their 'high art' context, remain deeply problematic, whilst others are both groundbreaking and liberating.

Looks at the way contemporary Western artists negotiate death, both as personal experience and in the wider community. This book discusses and moves beyond the 'spectacle of death' in work by artists such as Damien Hirst to see how mortality brings us face to face with profound ethical issues.

Surveys the vast array of images of sex and sexuality in contemporary art. The author uncovers sex in the city, sex in nature, and the intimate relationship between sex and the sacred. His initial consideration of contemporary art's focus on the body leads to an exploration of the important contributions made by the feminist and queer movements.

Art and Animals challenges ideas of identity, 'otherness' and civilisation by explaining the role animals have occupied in our cultural development and illustrating their presence in the visual arts today.

An encyclopedic survey of artists' responses - both 'official' and personal - to 'the horrors of war'. This work reveals the diversity of artists' portrayals of this most devastating aspect of the human condition - from the 'heroic' paintings of Benjamin West and John Singer Sargent to brutal and iconic works by artists from Goya to Picasso.