Essential to the study of art and history. Classic, crucial. ( )

A good intro to women aritsts in history that are often not talked about, made me want to go out and find more about them. However . . . a bit too over-the-top for me and man-bashing. I'm a feminist through and through, but the book skates over why women artists have been marginalized, that it's a longstanding cultural atmosphere --- I wish the book had been twice the length so it could have offered more explanation, more analysis. ( )

The Guerilla Girls are a group of women artists and professionals in the arts who work against discrimination of women in the arts and in art history. They remain anonymous by wearing gorilla masks when out in public.

Page eight of The Guerilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art states that this volume:

"isn't a comprehensive survey of women artists in history. It doesn't include all the cultures of this world. It's not a list of the most significant women artists. It wasn't written for experts who already know all this stuff. Writing about women artists in Western history is complicated. There are a lot of contradictory positions and theories. We have opted to stay out of the theory wars, and present our irreverent take on what life was like for some females in the West who managed, against all odds, to make art".

Their irreverent take on the history of women in the arts include comic strips, mock interviews, mock postcards and/or letters. This less-serious approach may be useful for those who might feel defensive about the role that male artists, and males in general, have played in women being treated as less in art history and their artistic skills.

I wish still-living modern female artists had been included in this volume, such as Judy Chicago, but they are intentionally left out by the Guerilla Girls because they don't believe in "evaluating or excluding our peers". I can understand that sentiment, though I doubt males would worry about evaluating or excluding their male artistic peers.

A good historic introduction to women artists, and I can see it appealing to young adults as well. ( )

The Guerilla Girls' present a quick overview of the omitted art history of female artists. The Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art performs as stated - each page is an easily digested tidbit of information about women's roles in art and the lives they lead. Most articles are confined to two pages and include examples of the artwork and pictures of the artists.

In-depth information won't be found in this book, other than the additional resources list provided at the back of the book. However, this book serves as an excellent ancillary to any traditional art history book that vastly under-represents female artists. For anyone wanting an entertaining, yet informative, graphic-intensive overview of the women left out of art history books, this is a great starting point. ( )

This book offers a whirlwind tour of the roles played (or not played) by women throughout the history of art in the "Western World," from the age of the Greek city-state to the end of the twentieth century. Tackling taboos century by century, the book's anonymous authors explode sexist myths as they cast light on the achievements of many of the underrated, underreported, damned-near invisible female artists who've labored mightily over the past few millennia to make marks on the male-dominated world of fine art. The book is a response to the chauvinistic "canonical" texts on art history and analysis that virtually exclude from their pages any mention of women artists and their accomplishments.

I appreciate the theme of this book, and its reason for being. The authors' voice offers the timbre needed to fill out the art world's oratorio. I've definitely learned from reading it, and have been left with a longing to learn more.

That said, the book is laid out like a modern middle school textbook, replete with eye-catching graphics, boxed trivial tidbits on the margins, whimsical fonts and photo montages. All of this offers ample opportunity for distraction. The medium reinforces the fact that the book's authors spend no more than two pages on any single artist, painting the merest outline of each. Many of these character sketches read like quickly-researched essays written by attention-deficit high schoolers, and do little justice to the artists they treat. Thankfully the book ends with an extensive list of texts for further reading.

In summary, the book was an eye-opener, and worth reading, but not exceedingly well-done, and mercifully short. ( )