{"title":"Michael F Leruth","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"modern-france-book-michael-leruth-9781440855481","title":"Modern France","description":"\"A truly astonishing book of facts about France ... librarians will find this book useful for developing collections, preparing for instruction sessions, and writing library guides.\" – Choice  This volume offers perspective on contemporary France, exploring topics ranging from geography to popular culture.  This encyclopedia is organized into thematic chapters covering numerous aspects of life in modern France. Each chapter contains an overview of the topic and alphabetized entries providing specific examples of the theme. Special appendices offer profiles of a typical day in the life of representative members of French society, a glossary, key facts and figures about France, and a holiday chart. The volume is an essential guide for readers looking for specific topical information and for those who want to develop an informed perspective on aspects of modern France.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50698560864529,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50698562896145,"sku":"NGR9781440855481","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52432454484241,"sku":"NLS9781440855481","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/144085548X.jpg?v=1750922696"},{"product_id":"fred-forest-s-utopia-book-michael-f-leruth-9780262036498","title":"Fred Forest's Utopia","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrance's most famous unknown artist, the innovative media provocateur Fred Forest, precursor of Eduardo Kac, Jodi, the Yes Men, RT Mark, and the Guerilla Girls.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe innovative French media artist and prankster-provocateur Fred Forest first gained notoriety in 1972 when he inserted a small blank space in\u003ci\u003e Le Monde\u003c\/i\u003e, called it \u003ci\u003e150 cm\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e2\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e of Newspaper\u003c\/i\u003e (\u003ci\u003e150 cm\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e2\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e de papier journal\u003c\/i\u003e), and invited readers to fill in the space with their own work and mail their efforts to him. In 1977, he satirized speculation in both the art and real estate markets by offering the first parcel of officially registered artistic square meters of undeveloped rural land for sale at an art auction. Although praised by leading media theorists--Vil m Flusser lauded Forest as the artist who pokes holes in media--Forest's work has been largely ignored by the canon-making authorities. Forest calls himself France's most famous unknown artist. In this book, Michael Leruth offers the first book-length consideration of this iconoclastic artist, examining Forest's work from the 1960s to the present.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLeruth shows that Forest chooses alternative platforms (newspapers, mock commercial ventures, video-based interactive social interventions, media hacks and hybrids, and, more recently, the Internet) that are outside the exclusive precincts of the art world. A fierce critic of the French contemporary art establishment, Forest famously sued the Centre Pompidou in 1994 over its opaque acquisition practices. After making foundational contributions to Sociological Art in the 1970s and the Aesthetics of Communication in the 1980s, the pioneering Forest saw the Internet as another way for artists to bypass the art establishment in the 1990s. Arguing that there is a strong utopian quality in Forest's work, Leruth sees this utopianism not as naive or conventional but as a reverse utopianism: rather than envisioning an impossible ideal, Forest reenvisions and probes the quasi-utopia of our media-augented everyday reality. The interface is the symbolic threshold to be crossed with an open mind.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51320987681041,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51320990728465,"sku":"CIN0262036495VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0262036495.jpg?v=1772274510"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-michael-f-leruth.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}