Spells is the first collection of Irena Haiduk's writing, gathering her texts and limited-edition publications since 2007.
What is Human? What is Divine? The Divine not only can do things that The Human cannot imagine, The Divine can imagine things that The Human cannot imagine. It is in this space that Irena Haiduk's work lives its perpetually challenged life: where that which we cannot imagine gets imagined. This art is a magnet that extracts psychic metal.
—From the introduction
Moving through a wide range of formats, the book encompasses manifestos, music scores, forecasts, conversions, translations, architectural programs, and other difficult-to-categorize works. With sharp teeth and a killer instinct, Haiduk leads the way to a sunny spot where every soul suffers infinite injustice.
Irena Haiduk's multi-faceted works reach beyond their anchors in Balkan history to mingle with other corrosive forces and slice away at the well-fed bodies of power. She has exhibited at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at University of Chicago; AKUD, Berlin; the 4th Athens Biennale; and other locations. A monograph of her writing, Spells, is forthcoming by Sternberg Press. Irena Haiduk teaches at Northwestern University and operates between Chicago, USA, and Belgrade, Serbia.
