Fantasy is the first monograph dedicated to the work of French artist Julie Béna. Featuring contributions by Michal Novotný, Silvia Franceschini, Eva Barois de Caevel, Laura Herman, Rose English, and Nicoletta Lambertucci, this book explores over twenty years of Béna’s work, from early site-specific performances and post-conceptual gestures, to the development of theatrical alter egos through narrative sculptures, subversive performative acts, and moving-image works.

Fantasy is...a tool through which Béna lucidly reads reality, through which she confronts social roles, and imagines emancipatory possibilities. It is a way to work through trauma—a struggle to live, and to live in line with one’s beliefs. We hope that this volume—through a dense and dynamic repertoire of images, humorous drawings, unexpected movements, caricatural type design, and critical texts—will become, for you, a space in which to explore the rich and intricate world of an artist, and the layered meanings of fantastical transformations. A book which, in the artist’s own words, can become “a place to return to, which is never quite the same. A book which moves with us.”

— Silvia Franceschini, 20 Years of Fantasy