Manual of Contemporary Art Style

You¿ll find all sorts of things in Helguera¿s Manual that aren¿t in any other book: the difference between an A-level artist and a B-level artist, how to cure the dreaded ¿festivalist syndrome,¿ how to keep your conviction that you¿re the greatest artist in history, and whether it is ethical for a critic to sleep with an artist whose work she doesn¿t like. This is a very funny book. It masquerades as an old-fashioned guide to the manners and foibles of the art world, written by a savvy twenty-first century artist. But it is clever, and has many voices: snide like Miss Manners, sweet and impeccable like Emily Post, hapless like Bouvard and Pécuchet, earnest like an Art World for Dummies, sharp like Swift¿s encyclopedia of clichés, sneaky like David Wilson¿s fabricated documents for the Museum of Jurassic Technology. Helguera¿s tongue seems to be in his cheek¿that¿s what you¿re meant to think¿but he is often very helpful, and everything he says is true. --James Elkins, author of How to Use your Eyes and Our Beautiful, Dry and Distant Texts: Art History as Writing. In the process of writing the rules of the game, Helguera also skewers its participants. --Rebeca Spence, ArtNews ¿An artist who dares to look at the big picture ...[Helguera] has a savvy understanding of art history and art audiences, enough to know that a little humor and a bit of irony are sometimes the best tools in an artist arsenal. --Barbara Pollack, artist and writer