Private I
A Memoir
Will be published approx. on 18. December 2025
Book
Hardback
208 pages
979-8-9886700-8-7 (ISBN)
Description
A visionary life at the intersection of art, technology, and feminism.
In Private I, Lynn Hershman Leeson - one of the most influential conceptual artists of our time-shares her personal journey and the struggle for her visionary work to be recognized as art. In the 1970s, women artists were often dismissed unless linked to more successful male counterparts. Defying this marginalization, Hershman Leeson carved her own path, creating groundbreaking conceptual works such as her Roberta Breitmore series, the Video Diaries, and films starring Tilda Swinton, including Conceiving Ada and Teknolust. Her innovative installations took place in unconventional venues-hotels, department store windows, San Quentin State Prison, and housing projects-while she raised her daughter and endured long periods of poverty.
To support fellow artists, she launched The Floating Museum, bringing site-specific art to reclaimed public spaces. She was also one of the first to document women artists' lives and work in her acclaimed documentary !W.A.R. (Women, Art, Revolution). Private I traces her lifelong commitment to experimentation-embracing film, video, AI, chatbots, touch screens, even her own DNA-to challenge ideas of identity and warn of the perils of technology and surveillance. At its core, Private I is a moving portrait of resilience, artistic innovation, and personal transformation through friendship, family, and fearless creativity.
In Private I, Lynn Hershman Leeson - one of the most influential conceptual artists of our time-shares her personal journey and the struggle for her visionary work to be recognized as art. In the 1970s, women artists were often dismissed unless linked to more successful male counterparts. Defying this marginalization, Hershman Leeson carved her own path, creating groundbreaking conceptual works such as her Roberta Breitmore series, the Video Diaries, and films starring Tilda Swinton, including Conceiving Ada and Teknolust. Her innovative installations took place in unconventional venues-hotels, department store windows, San Quentin State Prison, and housing projects-while she raised her daughter and endured long periods of poverty.
To support fellow artists, she launched The Floating Museum, bringing site-specific art to reclaimed public spaces. She was also one of the first to document women artists' lives and work in her acclaimed documentary !W.A.R. (Women, Art, Revolution). Private I traces her lifelong commitment to experimentation-embracing film, video, AI, chatbots, touch screens, even her own DNA-to challenge ideas of identity and warn of the perils of technology and surveillance. At its core, Private I is a moving portrait of resilience, artistic innovation, and personal transformation through friendship, family, and fearless creativity.
Reviews / Votes
"Lynn Hershman Leeson's universe is the super-radical and unstoppably empowered kindergarten of all our wildest dreams: where no limit exists to our optimism and curiosity, where even our intellects can bask in glee and play."-Tilda Swinton
"I see in Lynn's work: revolution in action, revolution in a frame, revolution at the speed of light as it tries to capture light. Lynn's intelligence: lightning in a bottle with the cap almost coming off always because her energy is too great to contain, and no one medium can contain it, let alone one persona. So much to learn, to think about and observe."
-Hilton Als
"Lynn Hershman Leeson has always been ahead of the pack in her fusion of art and science. As early as the 1960s she foresaw the technology-permeated world of today. She was making computer-based work in the 1970s, and went on to experiment with artificial intelligence and virtual reality as art media. At a time when so much new art feels so old, this work feels like the future, which is now."
-Holland Cotter, The New York Times
"In our current age of digital avatars, technological surveillance, and turbulent identity politics, few artists seem as relevant-and arguably as oracular-as Lynn Hershman Leeson."
-Robert Slifkin, The Art Review
"Spanning half a century, the pioneering art of America's Lynn Hershman Leeson is strange, beautiful and, best of all, funny."
-Laura Cumming, The Guardian
"Lynn Hershman Leeson was the originator of our current artistic zeitgeist, and the first to explore many of the groundbreaking ideas that shape our current reality. I'm grateful to Lynn for showing me what it means to subvert the mainstream and create on my own terms. Lynn was there, let the people know!!"
-Martine Syms
"Lynn Hershman Leeson is one of the most influential media artists of our times."
-Rudolf Frieling, Curator of Media Arts at SFMOMA
"It is fair to make the claim that Hershman Leeson was several decades ahead of her time, for she saw the potential of media to subvert itself." -Lisa Long, Artistic Director of the Julia Stoschek Foundation
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
Full-color images from the author's art collection and elsewhere; 130 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 225 mm
Width: 149 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
480 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-9886700-8-7 (9798988670087)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Over the last five decades, artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson has been internationally acclaimed for her art and films. Hershman Leeson is widely recognized for her innovative work investigating issues including: the relationship between humans and technology, identity, surveillance, and the use of media as a tool of empowerment against censorship and political repression.
Content
Chapter 1 ORIGIN
Chapter 2 AN UNEDUCATION
Chapter 3 CYBORGS
Chapter 4 A BRUSH WITH RACE
Chapter 5 COLLEGE COLLAGED
Chapter 6 REVOLUTION
Chapter 7 UNREST
Chapter 8 CHANCE
Chapter 9 REINVENTION
Chapter 10 ROBERTA
Chapter 11 RANDOMNESS
Chapter 12 REHEARSALS
Chapter 13 ROBERTA REDUX
Chapter 14 REHEARSALS REDUX
Chapter 15 THE FLOATING MUSEUM, 1974-1978
Chapter 16 RUNNING FENCE, 1974-1976
Chapter 17 WINDOWS, 1976
Chapter 18 PLEASE TOUCH
Chapter 19 EXORCISMS
Chapter 20 TRAUMA'S PROGENY
Chapter 21 COMMISSION!
Chapter 22 NOW WHAT?
Chapter 23 FORKING PATHS, 1984
Chapter 24 COLLECTED
Chapter 25 NOT ART-AGAIN!
Chapter 26 DOING TIME
Chapter 27 !WOMEN ART REVOLUTION (!WAR), 1968-2010
Chapter 28 HOME AGAIN
Chapter 29 TIME SHOWS US WHAT WE CANNOT SEE AT THE TIME
Chapter 30 TIMING
Chapter 2 AN UNEDUCATION
Chapter 3 CYBORGS
Chapter 4 A BRUSH WITH RACE
Chapter 5 COLLEGE COLLAGED
Chapter 6 REVOLUTION
Chapter 7 UNREST
Chapter 8 CHANCE
Chapter 9 REINVENTION
Chapter 10 ROBERTA
Chapter 11 RANDOMNESS
Chapter 12 REHEARSALS
Chapter 13 ROBERTA REDUX
Chapter 14 REHEARSALS REDUX
Chapter 15 THE FLOATING MUSEUM, 1974-1978
Chapter 16 RUNNING FENCE, 1974-1976
Chapter 17 WINDOWS, 1976
Chapter 18 PLEASE TOUCH
Chapter 19 EXORCISMS
Chapter 20 TRAUMA'S PROGENY
Chapter 21 COMMISSION!
Chapter 22 NOW WHAT?
Chapter 23 FORKING PATHS, 1984
Chapter 24 COLLECTED
Chapter 25 NOT ART-AGAIN!
Chapter 26 DOING TIME
Chapter 27 !WOMEN ART REVOLUTION (!WAR), 1968-2010
Chapter 28 HOME AGAIN
Chapter 29 TIME SHOWS US WHAT WE CANNOT SEE AT THE TIME
Chapter 30 TIMING