"Imagination without Borders is a terrific introduction not merely to a remarkable artist, but also to the contested ground of memory, politics, and creative expression in postwar and contemporary Japan. Tomiyama Taeko's uncompromising decades-long struggle to transcend parochial borders has taken her—and now takes us—to worlds where history, culture, and imagination are fused in stunning and provocative ways."
—John W. Dower, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and author of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
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"The conjoining of politics and art has never found easy acceptance, whether the accent falls on politics or on art. This collection of essays shows how, rather than abstract condemnation or affirmation, the relationship needs painstaking exploration with respect to audience, moment, style, and intent. In introducing Tomiyama Taeko, Imagination without Borders thus honors the dimensions of her lifelong, inseparable commitment to art and politics."
—Norma Field, University of Chicago
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"This collection illuminates multifaceted aspects of Tomiyama's art through four essays by Japanese and U.S. scholars of history, literature, cultural studies, and gender studies, as well as an essay by an Italian composer living in Japan. It also features a dialogue between Tomiyama and U.S. artist Eleanor Rubin in order to add the voices of artists themselves. This cross-disciplinary approach to exploring the work of one artist is refreshing and illuminating."
—Midori Yoshimoto, College Art Association Reviews
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