Face: A Visual Odyssey

Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2019. Cloth, ix, 261 pages, illustrations (some colour); 26 cm. PRESENTATION COPY. Signed by the author, with a personalized inscription. A near-fine copy, lower right corners lightly bumped. Dust jacket protected in a mylar cover. OVERSIZE! No priority/international, except by special arrangement. Profusely illustrated. "An elaborately illustrated A to Z of the face, from historical mugshots to Instagram posts. By turns alarming and awe-inspiring, 'Face' offers up an elaborately illustrated A to Z-from the didactic anthropometry of the late-nineteenth century to the selfie-obsessed zeitgeist of the twenty-first. Jessica Helfand looks at the cultural significance of the face through a critical lens, both as social currency and as palimpsest of history. Investigating everything from historical mugshots to Instagram posts, she examines how the face has been perceived and represented over time; how it has been instrumentalized by others; and how we have reclaimed it for our own purposes. From vintage advertisements for a 'nose adjuster' to contemporary artists who reconsider the visual construction of race, Face delivers an intimate yet kaleidoscopic adventure while posing universal questions about identity." - Publisher. CONTENTS: Prologue; Anthropometry; Biometrics + bias; Caricature + close-ups; Diagnosis; Eugenics; Facsimilies + fragility; The gaze; Heredity; Identity; Judgment; Keepsakes; Likenesses + lies; Masks + mirrors; Narcissism; Othering; Physiognomy; Quackery; Relatability; Surveillance + spectatorship; Typecasting; Users + the uncanny; Vanity; Wit; Xenophobia; You; Zeitgeist.. SIGNED. 1st. Hardcover. Very Good/Fine. 4to. Collectible.