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Art in Theory: The West in the World has a particular shape. The epigraph to the book says ‘the past is never dead’; nonetheless, the form the book takes respects the widespread contemporary preoccupation with the present. Half of the book is devoted to the twentieth and twenty‐first centuries. Thus the shape of the book involves a deliberate strategy: to insist on connections with the past, even the distant past, over the entire long period with which we are concerned, but also to emphasize the influence of the recent past on artistic and intellectual activity in the present.

When a published document, such as an essay, was originally given a title, this has generally been used for the present publication, in single quotation marks. Titles of books and exhibitions are given in italics. The term ‘from’ preceding a title – usually a book – signifies that we have taken a specific extract or extracts from a longer text without seeking to represent the argument as a whole. As a rule, shorter texts are either reproduced in their entirety or edited to indicate the argument of the whole. Where no suitable original title was available, we have given descriptive headings without quotation marks. The title of the whole work, its date of either composition or, if different, its publication, as well as its previously published source, are given in the introduction to each text. All published sources of anthologized texts are also given in alphabetical order in the bibliography.

It is the aim of this anthology that it be as wide‐ranging as possible. We have therefore preferred the course of including a greater number of texts of which several must appear in abbreviated form, to the course of presenting a small number in their entirety. Texts have been variously edited to shorten them, to eliminate references which cannot be explained in the space available and, where necessary, to preserve the flow of argument.

Anthologies can be dangerous. We are opposed to the practice of making historical authors into the puppets of those who come after them. We are aware of several examples of anthologies where elisions made by modern editors are either very lightly flagged, or even on occasion not acknowledged at all. We feel this damages the credibility of the edited text. While no editing process can ever be wholly disinterested, we have always tried, as far as possible, to let the original author speak in his or her own voice. It has been our practice throughout the Art in Theory series to indicate clearly where, and to what extent, texts have been edited. For this purpose we have used three conventions, consistent with the preceding volumes of Art in Theory. Suspended points ‘…’ are used for short omissions, a few words or a phrase within a sentence, or at most a few sentences. Suspended points within square brackets ‘[…]’ are used to denote longer omissions of several sentences or paragraphs. Asterisks ‘* * *’ denote more substantial omissions extending to several pages or a complete subdivision – such as a chapter or several chapters – of the original text. The only exceptions to this rule have been made for the sake of legibility. Thus, if there is a sequence of cuts and we have felt that a succession of ‘[…]’ would damage the readability of the extract, we have used ‘…’. But these occasions have been kept to a minimum ‘…’.

Authors’ notes have only been included where we judged them necessary to the text as printed. For the most part, they have been silently omitted. We have generally avoided the insertion of editorial notes but have supplied essential references in the introductions to individual texts. We have silently corrected obvious typographical errors and errors of transcription where we have discovered them. In the case of older texts, we have left idiosyncrasies of spelling and style unchanged at our discretion to retain a flavour of the original, but wherever we felt these became a distraction for the modern reader, we have modernized accordingly.

Finally, it should not need saying, but we wish to underline the point that the views expressed in the anthologized texts, present as well as past, should not be taken to represent the views of the editors or the publisher. We have endeavoured to let the authors speak for themselves, and only for themselves.