Artists in America have long battled against injustices believing that art can in fact "do
more." The War of Art tells this history of artist-led activism and the global political and
aesthetic debates of the 1960s to the present. In contrast to the financialized art market and
celebrity artists the book explores the power of collective effort — from protesting to
philanthropy and from wheat pasting to planting a field of wheat. Lauren O’Neill-Butler
charts the post-war development of artists’ protest and connects these struggles to a long
tradition of feminism and civil rights activism. The book offers portraits of the key
individuals and groups of artists who have campaigned for solidarity housing LGBTQ+ HIV AIDS
awareness and against Indigenous injustice and the exclusion of women in the art world. This
includes: the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition (BECC) Women Artists in Revolution (WAR)
David Wojnarowicz’s work with ACT UP Top Value Television (TVTV) Agnes Denes Edgar Heap of
Birds Dyke Action Machine! (DAM!) fierce pussy Project Row Houses and Nan Goldin’s
Prescription Addiction Intervention Now (PAIN). Based upon in-depth oral histories with the
key figures in these movements and illustrated throughout The War of Art is an essential
corrective to the idea that art history excludes politics.
