Ecstasy Unlimited

A unique collection of essays on popular culture, politics, aesthetics, feminism, and postmodernism, along with complete scripts from three of Kipnis' videotapes. "Laura Kipnis has made the leap from artist to theorist (or was it the other way around?) making videos which are informed by theory and writing essays that have and edge of the practice of everyday art. The book contains the scripts for three of Kipnis' videotapes and several essays which range form a critique of theories of the avant garde to colonialism. The best of the group has to be '(Male) Desire and (Female) Disgust: Reading Hustler,' which is an amazing argument for the radical potential of Hustler magazine based on an analysis of the notion of disgust. It's a stretch, but a well-argued and intriguing stretch. Kipnis' position on avant-garde film and video is also an articulate call for the merits of popular culture as the basis from which to build a contestatory cinema/video practice." -Film Maker