The Agency of Access: Contemporary Disability Art & Institutional Critique

In her book The Agency of Access: Contemporary Disability Art & Institutional Critique, Amanda Cachia writes about contemporary disabled artists and curators and their approach to expanding the conversation around contemporary art. Cachia posits that “disabled embodiment” is a conduit to new vectors of sense and sensory experiences, much like synesthesia. 

By showcasing works by disabled artists who are antagonistic (to the general public and the institution, among others), she demonstrates how they plunge audiences into the depths of deafness, blindness, sight, mobility, autism, and other disability topoi. The desultory ways that museums have typically approached contemporary disability art — as well as museum professionals in general — do not grasp it as the heir to and creative extension of earlier movements and artists. Cachia then proceeds to trace its genealogies in art history, disability studies, and history, interweaving them into a concise and captivating read.