Islands have never been more topical. This is the first book to focus on the important role played by the contemporary visual arts in the exploration of the island theme. Perry shows that pressing concerns with the climate emergency, migration and uncomfortable colonial and gendered histories have inspired some compelling and provocative art works. She argues that over the last few decades visual art has played a vital role in raising the visibility of such issues. She explores imaginative strategies of representation, metaphor, parody and performance in recent projects that (as she argues) have enriched the work of climate scientists, ecologists, cultural historians and geographers, and have enabled the development of rich aesthetic and interdisciplinary languages of representation and resistance.

Drawing on desert island myths and ideas emerging from the cross-disciplinary area of Island Studies, Perry ranges across continents and colonial archipelagos, from the British Isles and Ireland to the Caribbean, Pacific Oceania and the Galápagos. Women artists and their re-imaginings of the (often hidden) gendered histories of many island cultures are prominent in this book; Perry argues that the development of various forms of feminism across academic disciplines (such as hydro-feminism, eco-feminism, island feminism, etc.) have directly and indirectly informed some vivid artistic responses to this multi-layered island theme. She explores installation, multi-media and film projects from the 1970s to the present, including works by Robert Smithson, Lisa Reihana, Yuki Kihara, Roni Horn, Dorothy Cross, Alice Maher, Rodney Graham, Alex Hartley, Wes Anderson, Steve McQueen, Isaac Julian, Chris Ofili, Karen McLean, Rachel Whiteread, Tacita Dean, Louise Bourgeois and Cornelia Parker, among many others.