Infinite Gradation

Infinite Gradation is an astonishing meditation on the mystery at the heart of our mortality. In lines as precise and profound as any Michaels has written, Infinite Gradation movingly explores the nature of responsibility in extremis and the forms it takes—it is about hope in art, what art makes of death, and bears witness to the love and lives of visual artists and writers who have made work at the limits of experience.Infinite Gradation finds its way to a most powerful solace. (Michaels embraces mortality through three great artists, recently dead, who were her confidants: the sculptor Eva Hesse, the painter Jack Chambers, and Claire Wilks, print maker and sculptor.) "Infinite Gradation is an astonishing meditation on what art makes of death, and the moral, emotional, and philosophical implications of love and the creative act, especially those creative works that, as George Steiner has said, "make a deposit in the bank of terror." In lines as precise and profound as any Michaels has written, it is also a lyrically compelling praise song to love and the enduring mysteries at the core of existence. Michaels considers the lives of certain artists and writers - Paul Celan, Jack Chambers, Eva Hesse, Etty Hillesum, Nelly Sachs and Claire Wilks - who have made work at the limits of experience, in remarkably different situations. Asking urgent questions, she explores how art might serve as a witness in extremis, and she examines the nature of responsibility, and the form it takes in poetry, fiction and image-making when everything is at stake."-- Provided by publisher Infinite Gradation is an astonishing meditation on the mystery at the heart of our mortality. In lines as precise and profound as any Michaels has written, Infinite Gradation movingly explores the nature of responsibility in extremis and the forms it takesit is about hope in art, what art makes of death, and bears witness to the love and lives of visual artists and writers who have made work at the limits of experience. Infinite Gradation finds its way to a most powerful solace. (Michaels embraces mortality through three great artists, recently dead, who were her the sculptor Eva Hesse, the painter Jack Chambers, and Claire Wilks, print maker and sculptor.)