BOOKS
NEW BOOK LAUNCH
A Story of Sustainable Creativity in Bohemia
October 9, 2025. Czech Center, Bohemian Hall, New York City
October 11, 2025. Taylor & Co. Books, Brooklyn, New York
October 29, 2025. “Ruralities” conference, Universidade do Barcelona, Spain
December 14, 2025. Casa São Roque, Porto, Portugal
early April, 2026. ArtMap, Prague, Czech Republic (křest, český příklad)
published by English by New Village Press, NYC
in Europe order at: CAP
published by in Czech ArtMap, Prague January, 2026
Art, Farming and Food for the Future
Transforming Agriculture
2024
This book explores the impact of artistic experiments in inspiring people to turn away from current food consumerism and take an active role in preserving, sustaining, and protecting the environment.
As artists are expanding their practice into social justice and community concerns, erasing traditional forms of expression and integrating others, the culture around food and its production has been added to a new vocabulary of experiential art. The authors measure the impact of such experiments on local food consumption and production, focusing on education and youth, both in the surrounding community and culture at large. They suggest how these projects can be up-scaled to further encourage sustainable solutions for our environment and communities. The book explores the reflections and motivations of case study practitioners in urban and rural areas and, through interviews, engages with artists who are pioneering a new trend to create hubs of activity away from traditional art spaces in cities to follow a non-hierarchal practice that is de-centralized and communally based.
This book will be of great interest to academic readers concerned with issues related to environmental aesthetics, eco-design, eco-criticism, culture, heritage, memory, and identity, and those interested in the current debates on the place of aesthetics and culture in sustainability.
ISBN 9781138597525
Published 2018 by Routledge
Form, Art and the Environment
Engaging in Sustainability
2016
This book by Barbara Benish and Nathalie Blanc, adopts a pluralistic perspective of environmental artistic processes in order to examine the contributions of the arts in promoting sustainable development and culture at a grassroots level and its potential as a catalyst for social change and awareness. This book investigates how community arts, environmental creativity, and the changing role of artists in the Polis contribute to the goal of a sustainable future from a number of interdisciplinary perspectives. From considering the role that art works play in revealing local environmental problems such as biodiversity, public transportation and energy issues, to examining the way in which artists and art works enrich our multidimensional understanding of culture and sustainable development, Form, Art and the Environment advocates the inestimable value of art as an expressive force in promoting sustainable culture and conscious development. Utilising a broad range of case studies and analysis from a body of work collected through the international environmental COAL prize, this book examines the evolution of the relationship between culture and the environment.
This book will be of interest to practitioners of the environmental arts, culture and sustainable development and students of Art, Environmental Science, and International Policy and Planning Development.
CATALOGUES
Certain Traces,
Dialogue Prague/Los Angeles
2004
To mark the 15 year anniversary of the initial ground-breaking exchange exhibition in 1989, ArtDialog produced another major exchange between Czech Republic and California. Included 13 of the original artists, as well as 18 of the younger generation of Czechs and Americans in Prague, Brno, Los Angeles, & NYC. Curated by Sarah Brock and Barbara Benish. Venues: Barnsdall Municipal Art Gallery, Consulate General of the Czech Republic, POST gallery in L.A.; Sam Francis Gallery at Crossroads School, Santa Monica; Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont; S.C.A.P.E., Corona del Mar. In Prague, the Šipkarna Hala, Karlin & Museum Kampa. Essays by Benish, Brock, & Kristina Newhouse. Graphic Design: Kolář & Kutálek.
€15 + shipping
Dialog/Praha/Los Angeles
Dialogue/Prague/Los Angeles
1989
The original catalogue from the exchange exhibit between Czechoslovaks and Americans in the heady days leading up to the velvet revolution in Central Europe. Features the 15 American artists and their work. Catalogue essays by Stephen Eisenmann, Peter Frank, and Zdenka Gabalová and Barbara Benish (co-curators). August, 1989. published by the Czechoslovak Ministry of Culture. Graphic Design: Ivan Kafka
€12 + shipping
Ubiquity
2011
O’Kane Gallery, University of Houston-Downtown, Houston, Texas, USA. Curated by Mark Cervenka, Gallery
Director. Featuring works on the theme of plastic pollution shown at several venues: Galerie Nova Sin, Prague
(“Horizons”, curated by Miloš Vojtěchovský, 2006), Magnan Metz Gallery, Chelsea, NYC (“Full Fathom Five”, 2011),
ArtLife Gallery, Venice, Italy (“Mapping” curated by Doran Polak & Amir Cohen, 2011), Roundhouse Mews,
Vancouver, Canada (“The Ocean in Us”, UN Safe Planet, 2011), Universidad Technológico de Cancun, Mexico
(“What Will Be”, 2011). Essays by Mark Cervenka and Stiv Wilson. Graphic Design: Kolář & amp; Kutálek. ISBN 978-80-260-1991-6
€15 + shipping
What Will Be
2010
Universidad Technológica de Cancún, Mexico. The visual and performing arts for the Safe Planet Campaign. United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP16. Artists: Chris Jordan, Anila Quayyum Agha, Jason
deCaires Tylor, B.Benish, Gilberto Esparaza, Marcela Armas, Gideon Mendel, Christopher, Edgar. Curated by
Barbara Benish and Eileen Haring Woods. Essays by Eleanor Heartney, Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General
and UNEP Executive Director. Graphic Design: Marcia Mihotich.
€15 + shipping
Out of print.
The Miller’s Wife/ Młynarzowa
Fabs gallery, Warsaw, Poland. Curated by Malgorzata Sidor.
Out of print.
2006
Communication Space Školska 28, Prague, Galerie Nová Siň, Gallery of the University of Technology, Faculty of Fine Arts, Brno. Czech Embassy of the USA, Washington D.C., Czech Center New York (Shifted Focus curated by Aniko Erdosi). To mark the 15-year anniversary of the Fulbright Commission in the Czech Republic. Curated by Miloš Vojtěchovský. Introductions by Anthony Caine (2005-6 Chair of the Fulbright Board, Prague) and Hana Ripkova, Executive Director. Essays by Jaroslav Anděl, Lenka Dolanová, Martina Pachmanová, Miloš Vojtěchovský, Matthew Witkowski. Graphic Design: Petr Knobloch.
Out of print.
2006
Horizons
The Bride in the Enclosed Garden
2003
City Gallery of Pilzen, Czech Republic. Curated by Vacláv Malina, Director Galerie Města Plzně, and Věra Knetlová. Essays by Vladimír Kokolia and Jana Tichá. Graphic Design: Kolář & Kutálek. ISBN 80-239-2305-6
On this Side of the Sky: Unesco Salutes Women in Art
2003
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France. To mark International Women’s Day on March 8th. Artists included B.Benish, Shirin Neshat, Pan Ying, Song Gyong-ok, Angele Etoundi Essamba, Carla Guagliardi, Colette, Louise Bourgeois, Patricia Leighton, and dozens more. Curated by Hans D’Orville, Director, Bureau of Strategic Planning, UNESCO. Graphic Design: Ad Vitam, Paris
Out of print.
Hybrid Histories
2000
Benton Museum of Art (formerly Montgomery Gallery, Pomona Museum of Art), California. Retrospective solo exhibition of ten years’ work. Curated by Rebecca McGrew. Essay by R. McGrew, Introduction by Steve Comba, Director. Graphic Design: Jaeger Smith.
Out of print.
Sandcastles
1999
Huntington Beach Art Center, California. Two-person exhibition with Susan Hornbeack-Ortiz. Curated by Maggi Owens. Essays by Eleanor Heartney and Collette Chattopadhyay. Introduction by Naida Osline, Director, and Tyler Stallings, Curator of Programs. Graphic Design: Mylo Productions.
€12 + shipping
Palmovka: Sborník Synagogy na Palmovce
1997
Synagogue Libeň, Prague, Czech Republic. Annual catalogue of the “Na Palmovce” Synagogue exhibitions. Sdruženi SERPENS, curators/editors: Martina Pachmanová, Václav Špale, Jiří Matějů. Installation “Snake Dance” (music by Patricia Goodson). Essay “Water Element” by Martina Pachmanová and interview with B. Benish. Other artists in catalogue: Pavel Korbička, Miloš Šejn, Jáchym Šerých, Jiři Příhoda, Lucie Bártová, et. al. Graphic Design: Gekko 96. Publisher: Nakadatelství Milady Stroblové.
ISBN 80-901022-39
Out of print.
Apokalypsa
Galerie Klatovy-Klenova, zámek Klenová. Two-person exhibition with Adela Matasová. Paintings and installation by B.Benish: “Songs from Hell” and “Hum, Hum, Lines for Pleasure”. Festival Apokalypsa produced by Rachot, Borek Holeček. Curated by Helena Hrdličková. Essay by Carolanne Patterson. Graphic Design: Helena Kočmidová. ISBN 80-85628-04-X
€10+ shipping
1994
Objects: Sixteen L.A. Sculptors
1993
Armory Center for the Arts, and Art Center College of Design. Organized by Jay Belloli and Stephen Nowlin. Essays by Belloli and Nowlin. Artists included Tim Alexander, B.Benish, Wendy Adest, Steve Appleton, Yolande McKay, Daniel Wheeler, Larissa Wilson, Liz Young, and others. Graphic Design: Darin Beaman. ISBN 0-9618705-4-0
Out of print.
Encuentro
1992
Otis-Parsons Gallery, Los Angeles, California (two-person exhibition with Liz Young) + the Powder Tower (Prašná Brána), Prague, Czech Republic. Organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic to mark the 500 years of European and American culture (the so-called “discovery” of America). Curated by Anne Ayres (Los Angeles) and Zdenka Gabalová (Prague /New York City). Essays by Ayres and Gabalová. Graphic Design: Ivan Kafka and Leland Means.
€40 + shipping (only 10 made)
The Echo Park Project
1993
Echo Park Boathouse, Los Angeles, California, USA. Organized by Barbara Benish. Supported by the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. A mural project by Benish on the Boathouse and a community project with local graffiti artists. Essays by Benish and Willie Gomez, and Barbara Goldstein, Cultural Affairs Department. Graphic Design: Leland Means.
Out of print.
Emancipation into Solitude
1995
Mánes gallery, Prague, Czech Republic. Solo exhibition “Water Enough for One Root”, curated by Vlasta Čiháková-Noshiro. Sponsored by the American Center for Culture and Commerce, Prague. U.S. Ambassador’s Residence, Prague. “Kafka’s Swimming Pool” installation. Essays by Martina Pachmanová. and Pauline Barnes-Basora.
€10 + shipping
Furor Melancholicus
1992
Albrecht Dürer Hauß Stiftung, Stadtgeschichtliche Museen Nürnberg, Germany. Curated by Dr. Matthias Mende. Essay by Donald Kuspit. Catalogue design: Randy Gabazzo.
€10 + shipping