This anthology on the global biennial phenomenon includes seminal republished texts collected from around the world as well as newly commissioned contributions from the leading scholars, curators, critics, and thinkers of biennials today. Tracing the genealogy of the perennial exhibition format, including biennials but also other recurrent exhibitions triennials, quadrennials and examining some of the most emblematic examples of the twentieth and twenty-first century, from Venice Biennale to the Johannesburg Biennial and the Havana Bienal to Documenta and the Asian biennials, this reader explores the artistic, theoretical, political, and other ambitions of such large-scale exhibition projects against the grain of their resulting exhibitions. Poised to be a vital resource for scholars, students, curators, artists, and critics alike, The Biennial Reader reflects on the past, the promise, and the future of the biennial, and, in the process, on its impact on contemporary art, curating, and art institutions writ large.