Anyone who examines the history of Western art must be struck by the prevalence of images of the female body. More than any other subject, the female nude connotes `art'. The framed image of a female body, hung on the walls of an art gallery, is an icon of Western culture, a symbol of civilization and accomplishment. But how and why did the female nude acquire this status?The Female Nude brings together, in an entirely new way, analysis of the historical tradition of the female nude and discussion of recent feminist art, and by exploring the ways in which acceptable and unacceptable images of the female body are produced and maintained, renews recent debates on high culture and pornography.The Female Nude represents the first feminist survey of the most significant subject in Western art. It reveals how the female nude is now both at the centre and at the margins of high culture. At the centre, and within art historical discourse, the female nude is seen as the visual culmination of enlightenment aesthetics; at the edge, it risks losing its repectability and spilling over into the obscene.

任何研究西方艺术史的人都会对女性身体形象的盛行感到震惊。与其他任何主题相比，女性裸体更意味着 "艺术"。悬挂在艺术馆墙壁上的女性身体的框架图像是西方文化的一个标志，是文明和成就的象征。但是，女性裸体是如何以及为什么获得这种地位的？《女性裸体》以一种全新的方式将对女性裸体历史传统的分析和对近期女性主义艺术的讨论结合在一起，并通过探索可接受和不可接受的女性身体形象的产生和维持方式，更新了近期关于高级文化和色情的辩论。它揭示了女性裸体现在是如何处于高雅文化的中心和边缘的。在中心，在艺术史话语中，女性裸体被视为启蒙美学的视觉顶峰；在边缘，它有可能失去其可敬性并蔓延到淫秽。