Cindy Sherman is one of the leading American artists of our time, creating staged and manipulated photographs that draw upon popular culture and art history to explore female identity. Provocative and engaging, the visceral physicality of Sherman’s photographs is the key to their dramatic power, and she has become for many an icon of feminism and postmodernism.

Essayists Amada Cruz, Elizabeth A.T. Smith and Amelia Jones demonstrate that Sherman’s work is a lens through which to view contemporary art and its ongoing concern with the structures of the self. More than 270 images show the breadth of Sherman’s body of work, from the Untitled Film Stills of the 1970s to series such as Centrefolds, Fashion, Disasters, Fairy Tales and History Portraits. Also included are intriguing excerpts from Sherman’s notebooks, selections from her contact sheets and numerous Polaroid studies, all of which provide privileged and intimate insight into her working methods.

Amada Cruz is Curator of Exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Elizabeth A.T. Smith is Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Amelia Jones is an Associate Professor at the University of California.