This volume anthologizes the textual contributions from the Hammer exhibition titled Lifes. These texts formed the starting point from which choreographers and composers, theater directors and dramaturgs, and performance, video and installation artists contributed to the overall project. The publication documents the exhibition’s fostering of interdisciplinary conversation toward a “total work of art.”

In addition to scholarly contextual essays by Shannon Jackson, Aram Moshayedi and Greg Tate, the book includes texts commissioned for the exhibition and publication by philosopher and ecologist Fahim Amir; writer and director Asher Hartman; artist and poet Rindon Johnson; and novelist and poet Adania Shibli. An oral history compiled and edited by Nicholas Barlow documents the many conversations among contributors; and illustrations by artist Olivia Mole are interspersed throughout.