What to Read: Bold New Titles from Thames & Hudson

This week, we take a look at two new books from Thames & Hudson including Helen Chadwick’s radical life and art in Helen Chadwick: Life Pleasures, and a groundbreaking look at race, climate, and colonialism in Black Earth Rising. Both titles were published on 15 May 2025 to accompany major exhibitions at The Hepworth Wakefield and the Baltimore Museum of Art respectively. Read on to find out more.

About Black Earth Rising

Powerful and thought-provoking, writer, curator, journalist, and broadcaster Ekow Eshun brings together works by 100 contemporary artists of African diasporic, Latin American, and Native American heritage. Their work confronts urgent questions of land, belonging, the climate crisis, and social and environmental justice—set against the historical backdrop of European settlement of the New World.

Supported by an exhibition curated by Eshun, this timely publication invites readers to explore the profound interconnections between race, colonialism, and ecological collapse.

Order your copy here.

Melissa Alcena, NJ + LJ, Jaws Beach, 2021. Courtesy TERN Gallery on behalf of the artist and Thames and Hudson.

About Helen Chadwick: Life Pleasures

The first critical biography of Helen Chadwick – a pioneering feminist artist whose life was cut tragically short, but whose influence continues to resonate. Helen Chadwick (1953–1996) challenged conventional ideas of beauty and the body, creating provocative work that fused sculpture, performance and photography. Her radical practice used unexpected, often visceral materials – from bodily fluids and meat to flowers, chocolate and compost – and was laced with wit, defiance and depth.

A leading voice in Britain’s post-war avant-garde, Chadwick was one of the first women nominated for the Turner Prize. Merging art and life, and focussing on Chadwick’s interdisciplinary interests and engagement with education, music and politics, as well as an in-depth study of her art and ideas, the book is a fitting tribute to her vital impact on social and cultural history.

Coinciding with a major touring retrospective, this publication spans the breadth of her practice, from her renowned MA degree show  In the Kitchen  (1977) through to her seminal  Piss Flowers  (1991–92). 

Order your copy here.

Helen Chadwick, Photographed with Piss Flowers. Copyright Kippa Mathews. Courtesy Thames and Hudson.

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