Julie Speidel: The Center Holds

In this richly-illustrated monograph, the art of Julie Speidel is seen as one of myth and materiality, encompassing the creation over more than four decades of numerous objects that inhabit a variety of locales and fulfill a wide variety of purposes. She has created sculpture in many different media and a variety of scale, as well as an impressive body of prints. Achieved by an indomitable creative will, Speidel's accomplishments are inspired by an affinity for mythology, and allude to ancient cultures while also being deeply informed by extensive personal travel from childhood to the present. Although the collected signs and imagery of her work are steeped in earlier cultures, the working vocabulary is uniquely hers. This aspect of her art anchors her in a more recent tradition, that of twentieth-century modernism: abstracted, suggestive, and referential.