This important monograph traces, for the first time, the entire artistic career of Orlan, one of today's

most revolutionary and thought-provoking performance artists. More than 200 works, some

previously unpublished, are reproduced here along with commentaries and essays by leading art

critics, and a revealing interview with Orlan herself. For anyone interested in currents in contemporary

art Orlan: Carnal Art is an essential work, celebrating the coherence, profundity, and humor

of this complex and extraordinary artist.

Orlan , born on May 30, 1947 in Saint-Étienne, France,

has lived and worked in Paris since 1983. She began

her highly-unconventional career at the age of

seventeen with a series of staged photographs of

her own body, which has become her art "medium,"

her primary creative voice. She continued to make

her body the center of public debate with works

and performances staged in the most prestigious

art galleries in France. Orlan's art has taken myriad

forms: painting, sculpture, poetry, theater, dance,

yoga, photography, video. Exploring multiple voices

through this rich variety of media, Orlan's work

addresses the recurring themes of sexuality,

questions of female identity, Catholic symbolism,

disfiguration and refiguration, and the dialectic

between the virtual and the real.

Individual versus celebrity, artist versus star, modest

versus immodest-Orlan is a living oxymoron.