The vividly told, gloriously illustrated memoir of an artist born with disabilities who searches for freedom and connection in a society afraid of strange bodies
Riva Lehrer is an artist, writer, and curator whose work focuses on issues of physical identity and the socially challenged body. She is best known for representations of people with impairments, and those whose sexuality or gender identity have long been stigmatized. A longtime faculty member of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Riva Lehrer is currently an instructor in medical humanities at Northwestern University.
“[A] penetrating and razor-witted debut . . . Brainy . . . sexy and
soulful, Lehrer’s writing exhibits the force of will needed to make
one’s way in a culture where, ‘If it’s medically possible to push a
body toward that social ideal, then we make it a moral imperative
to do so.’ . . . With vast ambition and the skill to match, Lehrer
examines learning on every level—learning to live, to forgive, to
create, to love, and to become a part of various communities:
familial, queer, disabled and artistic. . . . Packed with
photographs of her own life as well as about fifty reproductions of
her brilliant portraiture, this daring opus stands as a fittingly
visual testament to the ‘radical visibility’ she advocates as a
teacher and a person—a beautiful meditation on monstrousness,
bodies and the souls they contain.”—Minneapolis StarTribune
“This searing personal history expands Lehrer’s project
of looking at our bodies inside and out, in all their queerness,
fragility, and strength, into a stunning new dimension.”—Alison
Bechdel, author of Fun Home
“Like Patti Smith and Sally Mann, Lehrer opens a vein and spills
wisdom and humor, lyricism, and conviction onto the page. She
teaches us with images and words that all bodies are exquisite,
just as they are. Lehrer’s life and art is an example of the
deepest creativity and resistance.”—Ayelet Waldman, author
of A Really Good Day
“Riva Lehrer is a great artist and a great storyteller. This is
a brilliant book, full of strangeness, beauty, and
wonder.”—Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s
Wife
“Vivid and unforgettable . . . It is the story of how someone who
is fundamentally different made not a life that transcends
that difference, but a life that lionizes it. This book
expands our notion of what constitutes the human experience, and it
does so with generosity and openheartedness.”—Andrew Solomon,
author of Far From the Tree
“With deft painter’s prose, Riva Lehrer helps us discover what it
is to be human when others see us as broken. In Golem Girl, Lehrer
gives us the gift, at long last, of our own crip beauty.”—Nicola
Griffith, author of Hild
“Lehrer’s story is a revelation of an inner subjective life—full of
tragedy, love, and creativity—pushing against the external social
stigmas, cultural narratives, and prejudices surrounding
disability.”—Stephen Asma, author of On Monsters: An Unnatural
History of Our Worst Fears
“A wincing-wise tale, by turns harrowing and hilarious, cut
clean through with flecks of grace and beauty.”—Lawrence Weschler,
author of Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One
Sees
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