Visualizing the Carceral State: Art, Power, and Abolition

Visualizing the Carceral State: Art, Power, and Abolition explores how visual culture has shaped, justified, and contested systems of incarceration. Bringing together leading scholars in art history and related fields, this interdisciplinary volume examines the images, objects, and spaces that have made the carceral state visible—in everything from prison architecture and colonial exhibitions to photography, print culture, and contemporary art. Across thirteen essays, contributors investigate how visual forms have helped construct public understandings of punishment, race, empire, and state authority. Thoughtfully edited by Keri Watson, Visualizing the Carceral State highlights cultural producers who have challenged these systems, offering alternative ways of seeing incarceration and imagining its abolition. Moving from the nineteenth century to the present and across multiple geopolitical contexts, this volume traces the visual languages through which carceral power operates and the creative practices that resist it. By situating art and visual culture at the center of debates about mass incarceration, Visualizing the Carceral State opens new avenues for thinking about the relationship between aesthetics, politics, and justice.