Creating Ourselves: The Self in Art

Accompanying a yearlong display of the London-based ISelf Collection, this publication examines individual identity, the body and the human condition from the perspectives of 20 artists.

Taking the display of the Collection at the Whitechapel Gallery as its springboard, this book looks generally at the question of the self in modern and contemporary art, and the ways in which artists are thinking about being and identity as an individual, in relation to others, to society and the wider world. Featuring over 100 works by a world-class roster of artists including Francis Alÿs, Fiona Banner, Phyllida Barlow, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Tracey Emin, Alex Katz, Sarah Lucas, Mike Nelson, Cindy Sherman, John Stezaker and Wolfgang Tillmans, the catalog also includes quotes by influential writers and theorists chosen by the artists, revealing how they have approached the question, "who or what exactly are we?"