The traumas and tragedies of war should never be underestimated or forgotten. They change lives—combatants' and noncombatants'—in unimaginable ways with far-reaching and generational effects. Artists provide visual representations and reminders of the scope and horrors of war. The platitude "a picture is worth a thousand words" is vividly reaffirmed in War and Art. The book surveys war art of the last two centuries, from the Crimean War through the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The volume's editor, historian Joanna Bourke[1] (Birkenbeck, Univ. of London) well understands the cultural dimensions of contemporary warfare and the deep emotional scars suffered by those touched by war. The present anthology contains four broad sections, each featuring essays by specialists in disciplines ranging from art history, archaeology, and cultural history, to military history and film studies. More than four hundred color illustrations depict the work of such artists as Paul Nash, Judy Chicago, Pablo Picasso, Melanie Friend, Marc Chagall, Francis Bacon, Käthe Kollwitz, Joseph Beuys, Yves Klein, Robert Rauschenberg, Dora Meeson, Otto Dix, and many others. Also represented is the work of overlooked artists, including children, POWs, and non-Europeans or Americans.

In her introduction, Bourke notes that the range of intent in the genre "war art" is problematic and controversial. Some works focus on the gruesome character of combat, others seek to glorify war. Bourke asks whether war art should encompass peacekeeping missions, like those in Cyprus or Northern Ireland. She draws attention as well to the resourcefulness of artists and the remarkable variety of media they employ.

With a few exceptions—Elizabeth Thompson (Crimean War), Margaret Bourke-White and Lee Miller (both World War II)—women have been excluded from combat zones until after 1945. Hence, "the dominance of male artists has skewed the representation of women in times of war" (16). Bourke is also keenly aware that, "without context, trauma risks being belittled" (33); the volume's contributors scrupulously provide the settings of the art works they discuss.

The book's first section offers a valuable panorama of wars and war art since the Crimean War. Though chapter titles may not indicate it, there is ample representation of conflicts like the Anglo-Afghan War, the Russo-Japanese War, and the Rwandan genocide.[2] Though these are very different in geography, types of combatants, causes, and outcomes, the human need to express the violence, values, and experiences of war through art transcends such distinctions.

The second section is distinctive for its focus on twentieth-century industrial "Total War" and the emergence of film as the dominant mass-entertainment medium.

Whether viewers look to the past in Gladiator (2000), the mythical in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–3), or the futuristic in the Star Wars series (1977–2018), the power of film has captivated audiences around the world. That said, Bourke astutely writes of the debate over the realism or verisimilitude of films that "one of the consequences of this emphasis on ocular authenticity is that innumerable acts of war—most notably, … wartime rape—would rarely, if ever, enter the war canon. By definition, raped women (and men) are rendered invisible" (14).

The third and largest section of the book contains chapters on individual artists. Though they were very diverse in their experiences, subjects, and styles, each portrayed the intensely personal and generically impersonal effects of combat on people and the natural environment.

The book's fourth section, addressing specific contexts of the experience of war, contains the most emotionally difficult chapters to view and read. In the nearly two centuries since the Crimean War, artists' conceptions of war have shifted from the celebration of heroic exploits to honest, unflinching representations of its horrors and the price it extracts from individuals and societies. A corollary of this shift has been the rise of art against war.

Readers will be impressed by the sheer scope of the material examined in War and Art. Sub-genres like trench art and propaganda receive expected attention, but so do advertising art, the art of children, military medical art, and art in contemporary social media. From frontline to behind-the-lines war art, the experiences of wartime have been portrayed in paintings, etchings, photographs, films, digital art, comics, and graffiti. The multicultural, multigenerational character of this art reminds readers that war is a universal human tragedy.

Naturally, survey volumes must be selective. Thus, for example, such Second World War works as Tom Lea's graphic Marines Call It That 2,000 Yard Stare[3] and Joe Rosenthal's iconic photograph, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima,[4] are merely mentioned, not illustrated.[5]

Although the volume's endnotes are thorough and helpful, the bibliography is restricted to good beginning resources for readers wishing to learn more. War and Art is an ambitious and captivating survey of the art and commemoration of war. Its readers will not be disappointed.