In this sparkling book, Morra integrates a thorough re-visiting of psychoanalysis, an in-depth study of a number of contemporary art works as installed in a museum not meant for art and, most importantly, she demonstrates the fruitfulness of revising the relationship between site and the art installed there. The concept of site-responsivity will transform our thinking about that ... Read morespecial spatiality without which art cannot reach its audiences.
Mieke Bal, University of Amsterdam Rugs and couches, videos and photographs - all play important roles in Joanne Morra's impressive and thoughtful book. Both a cultural and material history of psychoanalysis, Inside the Freud Museums works through the charged sites of the two personality museums devoted to this titanic figure, via the impressive roster of contemporary artists who have engaged with these historic yet deeply personal sites. For anyone interested in the pervasive influence of Freudian psychoanalytic ideas within conceptual art, this is an important read.
Caroline A. Jones, Department of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Show Less