The term Niddah means separation. During her menstrual flow and for several days thereafter, a Jewish woman is considered Niddah – separate from her husband and unable to practice the sacred rituals of Judaism. Purification in a miqveh (a ritual bath...

Whereas twelfth-century pilgrims flocked to the church of St-Lazare in Autun to visit the relics of its patron saint, present-day pilgrims journey there to admire its superb sculpture, said to have been created by the artist Gislebertus whose name is...

The exhibition "Space/Sight/Self" was designed to study the role of portraiture in contemporary art as a nexus of three issues – identity, vision, and place. The goal was to produce a portrait, as it were, of contemporary portraiture. This catalog do...

"Oh, do tell the American people that I am a normal man; that I am a devoted husband and father, that I have three fine children, that I go to the theatre". These words were spoken by Matisse just before the Armory Show in 1913 – a pivotal moment, af...

"Maps with the News" is a lively assessment of the role of cartography in American journalism. Tracing the use of maps in American news reporting from the eighteenth century to the 1980s, Mark Monmonier explores why and how journalistic maps have ach...

This extraordinary book offers a clear and compelling biography of Jacques Derrida along with one of Derrida's strangest and most unexpected texts. Geoffrey Bennington's account of Derrida leads the reader through the philosopher's familiar yet widel...

The Smart Museum's Classical collection began developing in the 1890s and now consists of approximately eight hundred pieces, including large-scale statuary and floor mosaics, vases, figurines, coins, lamps, and other utensils. The first extensive st...

If you had been living in France in the 1990s, the language you would have heard on the radio and television or seen in the newspapers would be far removed from the French language of ten or twenty years ago. The country and its language have changed...

Weather maps have made our atmosphere visible, understandable, and at least moderately predictable. In "Air Apparent" Mark Monmonier traces debates among scientists eager to unravel the enigma of storms and global change, explains strategies for mapp...

A rich exploration of the possibilities of representation after Modernism, Mark Taylor's new study charts the logic and continuity of Mark Tansey's painting by considering the philosophical ideas behind Tansey's art. Taylor examines how Tansey uses s...