"History is fiction and personal identity nothing more than historical illusion: Eleanora Antinova is the renowned US contemporary artist Eleanor Antin--Eleanor Antin is Eleanora Antinova, a black American ballerina. Shifting the boundaries between art and life, this book publishes the exciting memoirs of Antinova found by Eleanor Antin"--Back cover.

"With An Artist's Life, Antin combines for the first time her fictional memoir of Antinova's life with her own recollections of the time spent from the 1970s to the '90s in the role of her most famous character. From roles in forgotten modern ballets to a career at the Ballet Russes, where she was sought as a lover and surrounded by glamorous friends, to her later years in New York, Antinova's memoir paints an unprecedentedly rich and multifaceted picture of an aging ballerina and is illustrated with fifty stunning full-color images selected from among Antin's many photographs, films, drawings, installations, and performances. Antin's own journal offers further fascinating insight into how the blurred distinction between her identity and that of the Antinova enabled her to create art that speaks to the interplay between self other"--Publisher's website.