BOOKS BY THE GUERRILLA GIRLS
Guerrilla Girls: The Art of Behaving Badly, 2020
We are so excited about our new book: hundreds of projects about sexism, racism, corruption and other bad behavior in art, film, culture and politics … we just can’t stop! Help us keep up the fight, especially in these times. CREATIVE COMPLAINING WORKS!
Each copy comes with a punch-out gorilla mask!
What they’re saying about our new book:
Courageous practitioners of the arts of inspiration and instigation, the Guerrilla Girls have mounted 35 years’ worth of cunning attacks, by holding those entrenched in privilege accountable: in galleries, museums, and the societies these cultural institutions reflect. This brilliant collective is unparalleled, empowering communities by exposing gender and racial inequalities in the art world and beyond—and it’s all here, in dozens of indelible works that are some of the most impactful of all time.
- Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC
The masked and anonymous Guerrilla Girls, behaving so badly they’re good, have been agitating for gender equity in the institutional art world for 35 years. Progress has been made — though not enough — but graphic punch and irrepressible wit skewer powerful patriarchy at every turn in the pages of “Guerrilla Girls: The Art of Behaving Badly,” which chronicles the history of their exploits.
- Christopher Knight, Critic, LA Times
You can't understand art history without the Guerrilla Girls, and you can't grasp the Guerrilla Girls' depth and humor without this book. It's an essential resource for thinking and making art.
- Nell Irvin Painter, author of Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over and The History of White People
Published by Chronicle
The Hysterical Herstory of Hysteria and How It Was Cured: From Ancient Times Until Now, 2016
Our story about how female bodies have been treated and mistreated over the centuries. Published to coincide with the exhibition: The Guerrilla Girls and La Barbe, at mfc-michèle didier, 9 September - 12 November 2016, in Paris!
Boardbook edition by Michèle Didier Editions
The Guerrilla Girls' Art Museum Activity Book, 2004 & 2012 update
Rich people have always had a lot of stuff. A few centuries ago, they ran out of room in their palaces and churches, so they started art museums. The Guerrilla Girls love museums and all the art in them, but we worry about them, too. Why do they raise hundreds of millions for new buildings, then complain that they don’t have enough money to buy art? Why do they blow a fortune on a single painting by a white male genius when they could acquire hundreds of great works by women and people of color instead? Why do museum store execs get paid more than curators?
Museums sell books to teach kids how to appreciate art. We wrote a book to teach adults how to criticize museums. The Guerrilla Girls’ Art Museum Activity Book takes you behind the pretty pictures. Wallow in the dirt that museums hope you haven’t noticed. Take our fun tests; do the math. Get ideas for how you can bother, and maybe change, your favorite museum, just like we’ve been doing.
Published by Printed Matter, Inc.
The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion To The History of Western Art, 1998
Why do people have trouble naming more than one or two women artists? Against all odds, women have always been artists, many with productive and successful careers. Historians dismissed, ignored or forgot them in a relentless drive to define the Western canon through the work of white male “geniuses.” We decided to tell the story of women artists who should never be forgotten.
“A leveling indictment of bigotry in the art world, the work of the Guerrilla Girls elevates cage-bar rattling to a fine art.” —Mark Dery, The New York Times Book Review
Take a romp through the last two thousand years of Western Art with the Guerrilla Girls as your guides. Find answers to questions like these: Who put all those naked men in the classical sections of museums? Why did nuns have more fun in medieval times? Did a girl have to cross dress for success in the 19th century? How far does a female have to go from her home to become an artist? Why were the modern Masters more interested in painting prostitutes than Suffragettes? Read about the fascinating lives of the women artists who were able to make it, despite incredible social obstacles and sexist art historians. Art history classes around the world are using it as a textbook. Make your professor use it, too!
Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls' Illustrated Guide To Female Stereotypes, 2003
Thinking about film and pop culture drove us to investigate female stereotypes. How are they born? How do they evolve? How can we escape them?
“The Guerrilla Girls focus their beady little eyes, and laser wit, on female stereotypes throughout the ages. With subversive humor and great visuals they explore the history and significance of each stereotype as well as its evolution and the various manifestations each have taken on through the ages. Both an entertaining and educational read that will appeal to readers of all genders and ages—provided they like a good laugh and a hearty dose of truth.”
Out of print.
Confessions Of The Guerrilla Girls, 1995
Our first book included posters, a self-interview, members’ stories, shout-outs to other activist groups, love letters, hate mail, and tributes from bell hooks, Faith Ringgold, Gloria Steinem and others.
Read the interview from the book.
Out of print.
Hot Flashes From The Guerrilla Girls, 1993-1994
The National Endowment for the Arts gave us a grant to do a feminist watchdog journal. The Bush administration tried to take it back but we complained and they backed down.
Click below for PDFs of our mid-nineties, quarterly publication.
