During her short career, Ana Mendieta (1948-1985) produced a provocative and radically inventive oeuvre. Using her own body and elemental materials such as blood, fire, earth, or water, Mendieta created visceral performances and ephemeral "earth-body works" exploring life, death, rebirth, and spiritual transformation. Born in Cuba but sent to America as a child, much of her art expresses the pain and rupture of cultural displacement and exile. Her images are compelling, mysterious, and poetic. In some, the outline of her body is consumed by gunpowder, fireworks, or advancing waves; deities appear to be painted in sand, carved into stone, or drawn in earth. Besides drawings, photography, and works on film, the volume features writings and original documents by the artist that are being published for the first time. Exhibition schedule: Hayward Gallery, London, September 24-December 12, 2013 | Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, March 29-July 6, 2014

Text by: Julia Bryan-Wilson, Adrian Heathfield, Stephanie Rosenthal