Polly Gould Antarctica, Art and Archive : London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020. 368 pp.; 103 color ills. Cloth $75.00 (9781788311694)

Historically defined by the hypermasculinity of the “Heroic Age” of polar exploration, political contestation, and scientific observation, Antarctica today represents a critical multidisciplinary meeting point. Polly Gould’s Antarctica, Art and Archive offers a timely contribution to the historical study of Antarctica and indicates the refractive interplay among visual media, temporalities, and histories. Gould is both author and artist, and her archival study of the work of Edward A. Wilson and the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910–13 is presented in conversation with her own artistic practice. Taken as a whole, the book brings together a complex series of interrelated histories, materials, disciplines, and people to address the climatic and ecological implications of Antarctica. The volume is comprehensive and vast in its methodology and in its temporal and material reach; an expanded table of contents provides a tool for navigation, and an alternative reading is offered through chapters structured as chiastic pairs. With this, the many intricacies of Gould’s narrative indicate how archives not only preserve the past but also present alternatives for the future.