INTERNATIONAL AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR ANITA SELZER RELEASES POWERFUL NEW HISTORY OF WOMEN IN ART: THE FEMALE GAZE: VOLUME 2

Tide Communications

The Female Gaze: Volume 2, explores pioneering female artists from the Renaissance to the twentieth century, who, despite being excluded from the same education, support, and professional platforms as their male counterparts, developed a way of seeing that challenged the dominant male gaze long before the term existed.

Selzer brings twenty remarkable artists from Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Australia into view, including Artemisia Gentileschi, Mary Cassatt, Claude Cahun, Elizabeth Catlett, Tamara de Lempicka, Paula Rego, Charlie Toorop, among others. Many of these works were created under conditions of exclusion or constraint, with artists often learning their craft from artistic fathers or teaching themselves in secret. Despite these challenges, their works speak boldly through intimate gestures, subversive compositions, and a persistent insistence on autonomy. In doing so, they reframed the body, identity and power in ways that remain striking today.

Rich with striking and thought-provoking images, the book is both a visual and intellectual experience. Selzer’s insightful commentary guides readers through the nuanced concept of the female gaze, revealing its enduring presence and influence on art and society. Beyond showcasing exceptional works by women artists, the volume highlights the social and institutional barriers they faced, illustrating how these challenges not only shaped their artistic journeys and contributions, but how they succeeded despite them.

Themes such as love and loss, the lifecycle of women, motherhood, gender, sexual and racial identity intersect with socially constructed roles of women, connecting historical perspectives to ongoing conversations about representation in art (initially discussed in Vol1 of The Female Gaze in Art and Photography).Written in an engaging and accessible style, Selzer invites readers into the artists’ studios, struggles, and triumphs, offering a richly detailed and captivating history of often-overlooked creative women.

Drawing on leading feminist art historians including Linda Nochlin and Griselda Pollock, The Female Gaze: Volume 2 stands as a compelling, standalone exploration of women’s creativity, resilience, and lasting impact on the art world. 

The Female Gaze: Volume 2 will be available from all good bookstores and online from Hardie Grant Publishing from October 14.

DETAILS: 
RRP: $49.99 
Release Date: 14 October 2025
Formats: Paperback and eBook
Publisher: Hardie Grant Publishing

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anita Selzer is an internationally award-winning author, researcher and commentator on women in art. Her work explores gender, representation, and artistic legacy with a focus on illuminating the contributions of women across time despite the barriers they faced.
Her debut in the series, The Female Gaze: Volume 1, received widespread acclaim and has garnered numerous international accolades. These include the 2025 Big Book Award for Fine Arts (New York), the 2025 Independent Press Award in Fine Arts (New York), and the 2025 National Indie Excellence Award (Los Angeles) in Arts and Entertainment, where it was also a finalist in the Fine Art category. Additionally, the book was shortlisted for the 2024 Page-Turner Awards (UK) in the Non-Fiction category. Her writing has been endorsed by leading voices in the arts, including Emma Redding, Director of the Victorian College of the Arts, and Professor Barbara Bolt, Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne.Selzer is currently working on Volume 3, to be released in 2026 as well as researching a fourth volume, further 
cementing The Female Gaze as a vital and growing series in the art historical canon.

For more information head to Anita Selzer’s website https://anitaselzerauthor.com.au

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Isla McRae I [email protected] I 0484 642 100

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