ARTLESS: FASHION, IMAGE, MEDIA, NEW YORK 2014–2022
Composed of stories, fragmentary essays, and even press releases Stagg has been commissioned to write, Artless captures the media landscape lived and generated in New York during the past almost-decade. Since the 2016 publication of her debut novel Surveys, Stagg has positioned herself as an in-demand expert on—and critic of—the psychic experience of self-mythology within the cruelly optimistic metaverse of infinite branding. Part voyeur and part participant, Stagg continues her exploration of the branded identity and its elusive, bottomless desire for authenticity.
“Stagg, as almost no one else writing today, has her eyes peeled for that “other side where people are disposed.” That could be miles away from the desert: it could be, even in glamorous, unstoppable New York, on the highway hurtling home after another disappointing night at the end of youth, and innumerable other things besides, just around the corner.”
—Ann Manov, Bookforum
“Stagg is one of our sharpest writers on life in the digital age.”
—Cal Revely-Calder, The Telegraph
Paperback, 200 pp.
Published Oct. 24, 2023