Nomadic Narratives, Visual Forces Gwen John’s Letters and Paintings

«The most thoughtful integration of paintings and epistolary narrative that I know. 'Nomadic Narratives, Visual Forces' shows how letters do more than depict the 'real' painter; the analysis problematizes the relations between visual and written texts. Insights from the author's meticulous archival research with autobiographical materials engage dynamically with Gwen John's art work, resulting in a dialogic narrative about the complex subjectivity of a woman artist working in a male-dominated world. Drawing on contemporary theory, Maria Tamboukou offers a new analytic perspective on the relation between the visual and the epistolary, which will push the 'narrative turn' in social research in exciting directions.» (Catherine Kohler Riessman, Boston College)