153 x 230mm, 104 pages, Black & white printing, Perfect bound, Softcover, 2025

In Total Art, Laura Paul wrestles with issues of art and violence in a book-length meditation spanning the mediums of painting, photography, movies, music, and more. Inspired by the term Gesamtkunstwerk, the unification of multiple arts for one expressive aim, Paul pushes the limits of what it means to let art, or love, consume all of life until nothing else remains. By reckoning with our sharpest moments of brutality and our most extravagant displays of creativity, Paul shows that art isn’t extraneous to survival, but at the very center of it. A timely examination for a frightening era, this book isn’t only a bold argument about the need for beauty during upheaval, but is as compassionate as it is commanding.

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