Public bodies/private states

This book is part of the 'Photography: Critical Views' series. The series sets out to cross disciplinary boundaries in order to situate photography in its intellectual context. 'Public Bodies/Private States' combines visual imagery from women artists and the work of leading women theorists in a multi-disciplinary examination of the body concerning the boundaries between the public and private, as well as issues of territory, placed in an historical and contemporary context. The book is structured around the four key themes affecting women now and in the past: health and reproduction; architecture and urban space; violence, marriage and the law; and religion. Each of these themes is investigated both visually and textually with the aim of expanding the boundaries of contemporary debates in these areas. This collaboration combines the visual areas of photography and mixed media with the academic disciplines of medicine, architecture, law, social science, and theology, in order to specifically examine the ways in which these institutions affect our understanding and experience of the world mediated through our bodies in both the public and private spheres.