‘Practice’ is one of the key words of contemporary art, ranging from artists’ descriptions of their practice to curatorial practice, from social practice to practice-based research. Once used to denote ‘doing’, as distinct from thinking and making, today the term can convey associations of political action (praxis), professional activity, discipline or rehearsal, as well as a shift away from the self-enclosed artwork or medium to open-ended actions, series, processes and projects. This is the first anthology to investigate what contemporary notions of practice mean for art, to trace their development and speculate on where this leads.

Artists surveyed include Arakawa, AA Bronson, John Cage, Judy Chicago, Lygia Clark, Andrea Fraser, Tehching Hsieh, Mary Kelly, Henri Michaux, Linda M. Montano, Shireen Neshat, Pauline Oliveros, Yoko Ono, Adrian Piper, Gerhard Richter, Miriam Schapiro, Carolee Schneemann, Stelarc, Fiona Tan, Min Tanaka, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Cecilia Vicuña.

Writers include Kathy Acker, Giorgio Agamben, Hannah Arendt, Alain Badiou, Claire Bishop, Gregg Bordowitz, Pierre Bourdieu, Julia Bryan-Wilson, Judith Butler, Jennifer Doyle, Okwui Enwezor, Paul B. Preciado, Suely Rolnik, Peter Sloterdijk, Isabelle Stengers, Winnie Won Yin Wong.