'Melville and Readings have done a superb job, not only in their choice of essays, but in their elaborate and highly ambitious introduction. It is the best assessment that I know of the current state of contemporary art history and criticism, the most subtle analysis of the theoretical alternatives open to contemporary and future work in these disciplines.' - Keith Moxey, Barnard College and Columbia University;This volume brings together the work of distinguished critics and art historians in order to reflect and assess the impact of current critical theory on the discipline and practice of art history. Centring on the intersection of questions of vision with the problematic of textuality, the book addresses how issues of politics, semiotics, psychoanalysis and historiography have contributed to the emergent terms and practices of the new art histories.