Over the last two decades, Sutapa Biswas has created an intensely evocative and challenging body of work engaging with feminism, cultural identity and memory. Biswas draws from a variety of literary, critical and visual sources to capture particularly still moments in time. Her influences include Marcel Proust’s and Edward Lear’s writings, Frantz Fanon’s psychoanalysis, and paintings by Johannes Vermeer, Edward Hopper and George Stubbs, among others.

Generously illustrated, this monograph, the first critical appraisal of Biswas’s work, takes us on a visual journey through the artist’s oeuvre. From essays by Ian Baucom and Griselda Pollock exploring her literary and feminist influences, to newly commissioned texts by Guy Brett and Laura Mulvey which look at the more recent film work and the development of her practice across different media (from painting to photography to film), to an extensive interview with curator Stephanie Snyder, this book provides a unique and unprecedented insight into Biswas’s working practice.

Published to accompany Sutapa Biswas: Birdsong, a major international touring exhibition organised by Iniva in collaboration with the Film and Video Umbrella.