This work explores how feminist artists have responded to traditional depictions of the ideal female body which proliferate throughout contemporary visual culture as a ubiquitous marketing tool. Across photography, fashion, painting and performance art, Helen McDonald shows how feminist artists have employed the idea of ambiguity to counter negative images of women and to dismantle the elusive classical ideal enshrined in the nude. Examining the work of key artists from Barbara Kruger, Judy Chicago, and Mary Duffy, to Zoe Leonard, Tracey Moffat, Pat Barrington and Sally Smart, McDonald traces...

This work explores how feminist artists have responded to traditional depictions of the ideal female body which proliferate throughout contemporary visual culture as a ubiquitous marketing tool. Across photography, fashion, painting and performance art, Helen McDonald shows how feminist artists have employed the idea of ambiguity to counter negative images of women and to dismantle the elusive classical ideal enshrined in the nude. Examining the work of key artists from Barbara Kruger, Judy Chicago, and Mary Duffy, to Zoe Leonard, Tracey Moffat, Pat Barrington and Sally Smart, McDonald traces...