Reading List: Johanna Hedva
Journey through explorations of queerness, artificial intelligence, dystopia, love and speculative fiction in this reading list by the Korean-American writer, artist, and musician Johanna Hedva.
Head below to discover some of the inspiration behind Johanna Hedva’s Who Listens and Learns (29 November – 5 March 2023), a mystical artwork exploring magic and AI technology, presented in Modern Art Oxford’s Café and online until 5 March 2023.
For a limited period, a selection of the below books are available to buy in Modern Art Oxford’s Shop.
The Wall, Marlen Haushofer (1963)
The Wall is a feminist survival story and loving portrait of a relationship between a woman and her animals. It tells the story of a woman holidaying in a hunting lodge in the Austrian mountains, who awakens one morning to find herself separated from the rest of the world by an invisible wall. Discover more.
Tentacle, Rita Indiana (2018)
Tentacle delves into themes including climate change, technology, queer politics and contemporary art. Set on the streets of a post-apocalyptic Dominican Republic, a young maid finds herself at the heart of a Santería prophecy: only she can travel back in time and save humanity from disaster. But first she must become the man she always was – with the help of a sacred anemone. Discover more.
Atlas of Anomalous AI, edited by Ben Vickers and K Allado-McDowell (2020)
Atlas of Anomalous AI provides a fascinating journey into our complex relationship to intelligence, from ancient to emerging systems of knowledge. Discover more.
TransMaterialities, Karen Barad. In GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies (2015)
Karen Barad’s free online article makes an argument for the “radically deconstructive, queer, and trans nature of nature, including nature’s own engagement with materialist practices of imaginings.” Read it now.
Cursed Bunny, Bora Chung (2021)
Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker International Prize, this genre-defying collection of short stories by Korean author Bora Chung fuses horror, magical realism and science-fiction. Discover more.
On Hell, Johanna Hedva (2021)
Both tender and brutal, Johanna Hedva’s On Hell is a novel about escaping and the myths that trick and resist totalitarianism, telling the story of an ex-con whose body is broken by American empire. Discover more.
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enriquez (2022)
Written against the backdrop of contemporary Argentina, Mariana Enriquez’s stories of the macabre feature unruly teenagers, crooked witches, homeless ghosts, and hungry women who walk between the blurred lines of urban realism and horror. Discover more.
Annihilation, Jeff Van Der Meer (2014)
Four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and the biologist narrator are tasked with mapping the terrain of Area X, which has been cut off from civilisation for decades. Discover more.
Dawn [Xenogenesis series, Book. 1], Octavia Butler (1997)
This post-apocalyptic story by the award winning science fiction author explores gender and race and follows a woman called upon to rebuild the future of humankind after a nuclear war. Discover more.
The Emissary, Yoko Tawada (2018)
Funny and playful, Yoko Tawada’s family drama is set in a Japan that has cut itself off from the world after suffering a massive, irreparable disaster. In this world, children are born so weak they can barely walk, leaving the elderly to bring things to life. Discover more.
The Memory Police, Yoko Ogawa (2020). Translated by Stephen Snyder
A finalist for the International Booker Prize, The Memory Police has been described as a “haunting Orwellian novel” exploring the terrors of state surveillance on an unnamed island. Discover more.
Fall into the mystical artwork Who Listens and Learns by Johanna Hedva, on until 5 March 2023 in Modern Art Oxford’s Café and online.