PositiveThe Wall Street JournalIt’s not particularly new to remark that clothes say much about our sense of style or socioeconomic status, but Ms. Bari’s entertaining and wide-ranging overview reminds us of how deeply woven they are into the stuff of literature, movies, art, mythology and even sports. The book is subtitled \'a philosophy,\' but I would argue that it is much more like a sustained meditation, taking us nimbly into the well-provisioned corners of the author’s copious mind ... Reader, be warned: This writer has read and seen and looked at a whole lot more than you or I ... Throughout Dressed are sharp-eyed observations, suitable for reading aloud, and astute analyses of art high and low. Ms. Bari’s position on women’s clothing is, for the most part, acerbically feminist ... this is a turbocharged and delightful romp through more things on heaven and earth than are implied in the dry notion of \'a philosophy.\'
Mary Gabriel
RaveThe Wall Street JournalRecent surveys at the Denver Art Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York have paid homage to their accomplishments, and now comes Mary Gabriel’s sweeping and deliciously readable Ninth Street Women ... These artists are material enough for 700-plus pages, but the author also weaves a vivid tapestry of bohemian life in New York as that city was supplanting Paris as the capital of the art world ... Ninth Street Women is like a great, sprawling Russian novel, filled with memorable characters and sharply etched scenes. It’s no mean feat to breathe life into five very different and very brave women, none of whom gave a whit about conventional mores. But Ms. Gabriel fleshes out her portraits with intimate details, astute analyses of the art and good old-fashioned storytelling.
Marina Abramovic
MixedThe Wall Street JournalBafflingly, Ms. Abramovic does not speculate on the psychological origins of her work in her book ... Ms. Abramovic is not a polished writer. Her prose is blunt, occasionally breathless and sometimes cloying. But no matter what one thinks of her writing, her aesthetics, or even of her recent celebrity, this is a woman who has lived one hell of a life.
