One Thousand Drawings by Tracey Emin

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Far more quantity than quality. - Rated
Sadly this expensively produced book is little more than a predictable batch of scratchy, and willfully bad drawings and doodles. On viewing the book it soon becomes very obvious that there is a painful lack of real experimentation and development in this work. Emin's characteristic use of the monotype line provides an obvious attempt to pump some life into her mark-making and much of her work clings to this technique. However this soon becomes every bit as tired and wearisome as the drawings' self-obsessed content.

Doubtless her supporters would claim this gauche, anti-art, charmlessness is in fact central to her aim. This is ofcourse nothing new, Maggi Hambling has been doing this better and for decades before Emin. In order to enjoy this and indeed ALL of her work you would need to feel a great deal of sympathy for and interest in Emin's pseudo-solipsistic outlook on life. (Needless to say I don't.)

By way of contrast, students of visual art ( who Emin laughably recommends this book to) would do well to look instead to the work of Kathe Kollwitz if they wish to see powerful emotion brilliantly expressed graphically.

One thousand drawings - Rated
A vast book of Tracey Emins drawings from the last 20 years. For me, this book is the next best thing to owning some of Emin's drawings.

Deep inside - Rated
Excelent in-depth review of artists work and explanation of her life and work in the form of a series of long interviews, and commentaries from her video and film work. Very strong original individual feminist angle on modern art.