Be at Home in the Word: a review of Art, Artists and Pedagogy by Jorge Lucero

This is a good book. It should be archived in your collection and you should come back to it often. Actually, there’s no other way to be with it. You must come back to it repeatedly. You must read it sequentially sometimes and you should also read it from its last chapter to its introduction. Occasionally, read the chapters out of order; skim the table of contents and read according to your preferences and curiosity; or be counterintuitive and read the parts that contrast your taste, interests, and familiarity.

Read the essays aloud when you’re alone andread them in silence with others. Underline and markup whatever resonates with you. Annotate the margins with your questions. Leave bookmarkers and sticky notes in it. Leave it on your bookshelf, nightstand, or in your bag—ignoring it for months while you busy yourself with the tasks of being grown-up alongside/with the world—then be surprised by the fact that it exists and you own it. Take photos of its pages. Draw in it. Lend it to others. Post about it. The book is now in paperback and reasonably priced for an academic book, so it can even be assigned as a class text. Use the excuse of “teaching through” the text to hear differing thingsthat others might have to say about it. Have a creative response to the book through your art, your teaching, and the working out of your own philosophies. Put all the creative responses that this book triggers back into the world.

Art, Artists and Pedagogy is published by Routledge.