Trap Door

As someone who has spent her life seeking reflections of myself in visual and print media, this anthology by my dear friend Reina Gossett was a salve, helping me unpack the images I’ve taken in of myself as a trans woman – and the ones I am creating through my own writings and Pose.–Sarah Karlan, BuzzFeed–

The texts collected here chart new ways to tell our stories, to represent ourselves, our art, our archives, and our futures.

Trap Door is an essential tome that focuses loosely on work by trans-identified artists and the paradoxes inherent within it. The book is “resistant to the canonization of trans art,” as its editors note in an introduction, and the writings and interviews included in an expansive anthology–showcasing figures such as Chris E. Vargas, Geo Wyeth, Wu Tsang, Park McArthur, and Constantina Zavitsanos–provide valuable ways of redefining what a canon might entail.

Reina Gossett is an artist, activist, and 2017 Activist in Residence at the Barnard Center for Research on Women. She directed The Personal Things (2016) and, with Sasha Wortzel, wrote, directed, and produced Happy Birthday, Marsha! (2017), a short film about legendary performer and activist Marsha P. Johnson.

Eric A. Stanley is Assistant Professor in the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of California, Riverside, editor of Captive Genders- Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex, and, with Chris E. Vargas, director of the films Homotopia (2006) and Criminal Queers (2016).

Johanna Burton is Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Engagement at the New Museum in New York and the series editor for the Critical Anthologies in Art and Culture.

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