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I am a photographer (or, I once was). In my discipline, thanks to Roland Barthes’s 1980 treatise Camera Lucida, we refer to the entry point into the photograph as “the punctum.” Though “entry point” isn’t quite right. The punctum, Barthes wrote, is more than a distinct detail; in fact, it can be entirely banal. It is rather “an accident which pricks me (but also bruises me, is poignant to me).” What could be a more

Donna the chimp. Photo by Victoria Horner. Donna is a biologically female chimpanzee who exhibits many traits associated with her male counterparts; she likes to wrestle, walks with a “swagger,” and can erect her body hair. In Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist, Frans de Waal describes Donna as “a largely asexual gender nonconforming individual.” But why should we care? As S.C. Cornell writes in her thoughtful critique of zoological essentialism (pp. 36–39),

On the cover: “Audre” Elise Peterson’s digital collages are casually electrifying. “Audre,” on the cover, evokes Lorde’s distinct feminism by juxtaposing cozy intimacy and radical commitments. The last page of LIBER features Grace Jones circa 1985 perfectly balanced within Matisse’s La Danse (1909), effortlessly central. A writer, children’s book illustrator, and parent of a three-year-old, Peterson hosts the COOL MOMS podcast (recording live at SoHo House). In it, she interviews mothers who, like her, “prioritize their passions.” A longtime

“March for Women’s Lives — Washington D.C.” Twenty years ago, the US Supreme Court was poised to consider Planned Parenthood of Southeastern PA v. Casey, and abortion rights advocates feared that the newly minted conservative majority would endorse a slew of restrictions (like parental consent and waiting periods) or even overturn Roe. On April 5, 1992, the recently formed Women’s Action Coalition (WAC) and Guerilla Girls (an anonymous street art collective formed in 1984 to disrupt sexism and

In the spring of 2020, we were a class called “Egocircus, a Workshop in Collaboration.” Then of course we became a Zoom class. For some reason, the class did not end but became a virtual laboratory for artmaking, choreography, video, jokes, gossip, philosophy. We got confused doing Share Screen + Share Computer Audio. We did things we were not very good at—sometimes together, sometimes with our future selves. We revised toward friendship, floating in different

FRONT COVER: Cecily Brown. All Is Vanity (after Gilbert), 2006. Monotype; 47 1/4 × 36 7/8 in. Private collection, courtesy Two Palms, New York. © Cecily Brown. LATELY WHEN I look in the mirror, I see death. Or rather, I see the signs of creeping middle age—the widening part of my hair, the grays which overnight have become too many to pluck, the deepening smile lines—and I ponder my mortality. Yes, I know that thirty-two

On the cover: Machine Dazzle, Times Square, 2008 By Eileen Keane Machine Dazzle (née Matthew Flower, b. 1972) is performance artist and self-taught costume designer known for his wild inventions and for whom street is stage. Elissa Auther, who curated Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle, on view through February 2023 at New York’s Museum of Arts and Design, says Machine’s “queer bricolage self-consciously makes display out of cast-offs that he cobbles together into a culture

On the cover: “Matisse’s Model (The French Collection, Part1: #5), 1991 by Faith Ringgold Matisse’s Model (The French Collection, Part 1: #5), 1991 By Faith Ringgold Acrylic on canvas, printed and tie-dyed pieced fabric, and ink Courtesy of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Frederick R. Weisman Contemporary Art Acquisitions Endowment. To take in the protean career of Faith Ringgold⎯as I did recently at the New Museum’s landmark retrospective Faith Ringgold: American People, which ripples across