The Lure of the Local

Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society

Lucy R. Lippard

The classic exploration of our multiple senses of place, by one of America’s most influential art writers

“Lippard overwhelms us with the breadth of her reading and the comprehensiveness with which she considers the things that define place. . . .” —The New York Times

In The Lure of the Local Lucy R. Lippard weaves together cultural studies, history, geography, and contemporary art to provide a fascinating examination of our multiple senses of place.

Divided into five parts—Around Here; Manipulating Memory; Down to Earth: Land Use; The Last Frontiers: Cities and Suburbs; and Looking Around—the book extends far beyond the confines of the art worlds, including issues of community, land use, perceptions of nature, how we produce the landscape, and how the landscape affects our lives. Praised by critics and readers alike, she consistently makes unexpected connections between contemporary art and its political, social, and cultural contexts.

Topics:

Culture

Praise

“Interesting and thoughtful. . . . Her critiques are often delightfully acidic. . . . A solid contribution to popular geography.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“An excellent reference guide to recent and historical place-oriented art and activism.”

—Preservation

“Lippard has signaled the highest political hopes of art, from her early embrace of ’60s conceptual art to her ’70s support of feminism to her careful documentation in the ’80s of the art of America’s ethnic communities. . . . [The Lure of the Local] arrives at an auspicious time, as interest in community history is on the rise throughout the country. . . . An encyclopedic study of the art of community.”