fb pixcode

ART CRITICISM, THEORY AND HISTORY

PUBLISHER
Badlands Unlimited

BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 5 x 8 in. / 148 pgs / 10 bw.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date
Out of print

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 2014 p. 155   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9781936440665 TRADE
List Price: $16.95 CDN $24.00

AVAILABILITY
Not available

DOWNLOAD THE SPRING 2023 CATALOG

Artbook | D.A.P. Catalog Cover Link
Preview our Spring 2023 catalog, featuring more than 500 new books on art, photography, design, architecture, film, music and visual culture.
  

BADLANDS UNLIMITED

The Best Most Useless Dress: Selected Writings of Claudia La Rocco

Edited by Paul Chan. Introduction by Elizabeth Robinson.

Widely known as an incisive critic for The New York Times and Artforum, Claudia La Rocco is also a poet and performer whose hybrid texts are as mercurial and imaginative as her criticism. The Best Most Useless Dress reveals the breadth and depth of La Rocco's art, encompassing a decade's worth of poetry, essays, performance texts and reviews. These writings explore how movement and rhythm--in time, through space, across bodies, on the page--engender experience itself. Jay Sanders, curator of performing arts at the Whitney, writes: "Claudia La Rocco's impactful writing sketches its performing subjects in real time, depicting not only the character of work, but the conditions in which it collectively forms and exists. Here the spaces of New York performance and the spaces of critical writing reveal themselves anew." The book includes an introduction by poet Elizabeth Robinson.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS

The Miami Rail

Cherry Pickman

Claudia La Rocco's The Best Most Useless Dress is not poetry. That is, it's not poetry exclusively, but an amalgam of writings, including criticism, handwritten notes, musings, and bits of conversation (also, images) with any combination of these at times appearing within a single piece. The result of all this would be disorienting were it not for recurring themes and phrases, and, perhaps more importantly, the earnestness with which she approaches each poem and the general sense that she has eschewed the desire to provide the reader with something polished and perfect. This meandering, this hesitation, this doubling back creates an intimacy with the reader that excuses some of the haphazardness of the work—no, not excuses—justifies.

Lenny Book Pick

Laia Garcia

Whether she's writing about love, or about a ballet, it all boils down to human emotions. The subtle movements of a dancer, and the subtle movements of a lover can all have the same meaning, and La Rocco writes about both in a way that automatically transports you to a different place.

The Best Most Useless Dress: Selected Writings of Claudia La Rocco

STATUS: Out of print | 00/00/00

For assistance locating a copy, please see our list of recommended out of print specialists

FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/2/2014

'The Best Most Useless Dress: Selected Writings of Claudia La Rocco' Launch Event at The Kitchen

'The Best Most Useless Dress: Selected Writings of Claudia La Rocco' Launch Event at The Kitchen

Next Monday, September 8, The Kitchen presents The Best Most Useless Dress, a reading and book signing by Claudia La Rocco with special guest Ralph Lemon.
continue to blog


FORTHCOMING AND NEW: CRITICISM AND THEORY

Oslo Pilot (2015–17)

OSLO PILOT (2015–17)

MOUSSE PUBLISHING

ISBN: 9788867493425
USD $37.00
| CAN $55

Pub Date: 2/19/2019
Active | In stock


The Passion of Images

THE PASSION OF IMAGES

WALTHER KöNIG, KöLN

ISBN: 9783960987727
USD $15.00
| CAN $21

Pub Date: 8/1/2023
Forthcoming


Art and Autonomy: A Critical Reader

ART AND AUTONOMY: A CRITICAL READER

WALTHER KöNIG, KöLN

ISBN: 9783960989332
USD $45.00
| CAN $63

Pub Date: 4/11/2023
Active | In stock


Productive Archiving

PRODUCTIVE ARCHIVING

VALIZ

ISBN: 9789493246164
USD $29.95
| CAN $41.95

Pub Date: 6/13/2023
Active | In stock


Bodied

BODIED

MOUSSE PUBLISHING

ISBN: 9788867495368
USD $25.00
| CAN $35

Pub Date: 4/4/2023
Active | In stock


Yale: History of an Art School

YALE: HISTORY OF AN ART SCHOOL

WALTHER KöNIG, KöLN

ISBN: 9783753300054
USD $25.00
| CAN $35

Pub Date: 7/5/2022
Active | In stock


Strange Cargo

STRANGE CARGO

SKIRA

ISBN: 9788857246550
USD $64.00
| CAN $88

Pub Date: 8/2/2022
Active | In stock


Bad Manners

BAD MANNERS

RIDINGHOUSE/LUXEMBOURG + CO., LONDON

ISBN: 9781909932708
USD $25.00
| CAN $35

Pub Date: 7/5/2022
Active | Out of stock


The Material Kinship Reader

THE MATERIAL KINSHIP READER

ONOMATOPEE PROJECTS

ISBN: 9789493148789
USD $25.00
| CAN $35

Pub Date: 11/29/2022
Active | In stock


The Artist's Estate: A Handbook for Artists, Executors, and Heirs

THE ARTIST'S ESTATE: A HANDBOOK FOR ARTISTS, EXECUTORS, AND HEIRS

HATJE CANTZ

ISBN: 9783775753371
USD $40.00
| CAN $56

Pub Date: 11/15/2022
Active | In stock


The Dialectic of Creativity

THE DIALECTIC OF CREATIVITY

HATJE CANTZ

ISBN: 9783775752923
USD $34.95
| CAN $48.95

Pub Date: 1/3/2023
Active | In stock


Making Matters

MAKING MATTERS

VALIZ

ISBN: 9789493246119
USD $27.50
| CAN $38

Pub Date: 11/1/2022
Active | In stock