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A lack of critical analysis and intellectual rigour has become a recurring theme in conference papers and journal articles in the field of ceramics in recent years. The complex historical reasons for the problem are explored in this book. The philosopher Michel Foucault´s notions on how discourses develop in different subject areas are used to inform the methodological approach, in particular how institutional hierarchies and those in positions of power can control discourse in small fields of practice and silence dissenting voices. The author proposes a new critical context for a specific process-led area of contemporary sculptural ceramic art that has so far been described as difficult to classify and write about, but which she identifies as having similarities to post-Minimalist process art. The book will be of particular interest to artists, academics, critics, curators and students who are looking for ways of critically approaching an under-theorised and under-researched area of contemporary art practice.

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Dr. Wendy Tuxill: Studied Practice-Based PhD in Contemporary Sculptural Ceramics at the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities Research Institute, University of Hertfordshire. Artist, Researcher and Visiting Lecturer in Critical and Cultural Studies, School of Creative Arts, University of Hertfordshire, England.

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