Produced on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at FM Centre for Contemporary Art, Milan, from 4 April–26 May, 2019. The Unexpected Subject. 1978 Art and Feminism in Italy recounts the Seventies as a key phase in the history of Italian art of the 20th century, during which the spread of feminist thinking stimulates a new critical awareness that encourages many female artists, curators and art historians to rethink their role in society, life and art.

With works by Tomaso Binga, Irma Blank, Hanne Darboven, Agnes Denes, Chiara Diamantini, Amelia Etlinger, Maria Ferrero Gussago, Simone Forti, Sanja Iveković, Joan Jonas, Ketty La Rocca, Katalin Ladik, Maria Lai, Marisa Merz, Carol Rama, Mira Schendel, Carolee Schneemann, Eleanor Schott, Mariuccia Secol, Mary Ellen Solt, Biljana Tomić amongst others.

Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959–1979 is an expansive anthology focused on concrete poetry written by women in the groundbreaking movement’s early history. It features 50 writers and artists from Europe, Japan, Latin America, and the United States selected by editors Alex Balgiu and Mónica de la Torre.

The works in this volume evolved from previous manifestations of concrete poetry as defined in foundational manifestos by Öyvind Fahlström, Eugen Gomringer, and the Brazilian Noigandres Group. While some works are easily recognized as concrete poetry, as documented in canonical anthologies edited by Mary Ellen Solt and Emmett Williams in the late ’60s, it also features expansive, serial works that are overtly feminist and often trouble legibility.

Artists and writers include; Ana Bella Geiger, Mira Schendel, Mirella Bentivoglio, Tomaso Binga, Ilse Garnier, Mirtha Dermisache, Mary Ellen Solt, Susan Howe, Liliane Lijn, Hannah Weiner, Irma Blank, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, Chima Sunada, Katalin Ladik amongst others. Designed by Scott Ponik.