In a Different Light documents a landmark exhibition at the University Art Museum, and features curatorial essays, over 100 reproductions of all the artwork in the exhibition, and a selection of fiction, personal essays, rants, and image-text projects on the power of visual culture. This book explores the resonances of gay, lesbian and queer experience in American culture, particularly in the past thirty years.

In a Different Light engages a range of queer issues, aesthetic concerns, and formal styles. Instead of inquiring "What does lesbian or gay art look like?" the curators ask: "How are queer artists looking at the world?" This is the first time that a major American museum has considered this important subject in a broad cross-generational context.

The inclusion of literary work in the context of this exhibition catalog brings into focus the relationships between artists and writers in lesbian and gay culture, the interaction of genres and media in these representations, and the impact of visual culture - the arts, popular iconography, advertising, and style - on the formation of identity.