In vigorous prose and 86 astonishing illustrations, Camille demonstrates how 'Gothic marginal art flourished from the late twelfth to the late fourteenth century by virtue of the absolute hegemony of the system it sought to subvert'--for 'premodern societies used ritualized disruption to reinstate social norms rather than resist them'...In this fine book how exhilarating it is to see our ancestors giggling and roaring in vulgar delight in the comforting shadows of their sacred texts and sanctuaries.
-- Richard Locke Wall Street Journal

A witty and original account of a fascinating subject. Medieval manuscripts, buildings and sculpture abound with subversive, erotic or scatological marginalia. Why are they there? Do they undermine dogma or just provide light relief? Camille gives some closely-observed and convincing answers.
-- Chris Savage King New Statesman and Society

[A] sprightly and suggestive study.
-- Richard Eder Los Angeles Times Book Review

Michael Camille offers us a book that distracts and instructs us simultaneously, in part because images are given as much play as texts. Camille's pages teem with ideas that, like medieval hybrids, are protean in their inventiveness. Rather than condemning the margins of medieval art, Camille celebrates them in animated, even exuberant prose, arguing in the process that their often overlooked representations pose as many problems as the center that more often has riveted our attention.
-- Jeffrey F. Hamburger Art Bulletin