To want to reveal; to want to reveal enough; to desire; to desire in the right way, the right amount: in her debut book, Rachel James narrates the desiring subject’s nuanced and entangled intimacies with histories of power. How, in other words, under patriarchy, against misogyny, within capitalist strictures, is knowledge shaped, contained, and transferred? Tracing traditions of theater, pedagogy, and faith, An Eros Encyclopedia offers up desire and the attunement to its many objects as the atmosphere of a life—a method to navigate, perceive, and relate against the illusion of separation.

Rachel James (b. Toronto, Canada) is a poet and artist with a background in experimental ethnography. She has presented her work in the United States, Canada, and Europe, including at Miguel Abreu Gallery and Essex Flowers in New York City, Kelly Writers House in Philadelphia, The New Gallery in Calgary, and Totaldobže in Riga. Her poems have been published by The Recluse and Form IV. As an audio documentarian she has worked with BBC Radio, WNYC, The Organist, and others. She holds an MFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School for the Arts at Bard College and has taught seminars on performance scores and essay films. She lives in New York City.