Manon – A Person

The Swiss artist Manon (*1946) has been a pioneer of female body and performance art since the 1970s. Her sensual environments and installations placed her in the limelight of the art world in 1974, and her radical performances and conceptual photo series assured her international fame. From the beginning of her career, her work reflected on the construction of identity, sexuality, and gender stereotypes, long before it became widely accepted or fashionable to do so. Manon – A Person is the first comprehensive study of this groundbreaking contemporary artist, featuring the entire range of her work, from the early Fetish Pictures to her most recent photographic series.

In addition to the more than one hundred color plates Manon – A Person includes essays by internationally renowned curators and critics, including Jean-Christophe Ammann, Jörg Heiser, Gianni Jetzer, Amelia Jones, Simon Maurer, and Brigitte Ulmer. Chronicling the life of an incomparable artist, from her days as a lingerie model and HR Giger’s muse to her success as a clothing designer and gender-challenging performance artist, Manon – A Person will be essential reading for anyone interested in the heady intersection of gender, fashion, and art.

The book was published to coincide with exhibitions at the Helmhaus Zürich and the Swiss Institute in New York.