Optic Nerve - Hardcover

"I was reminded of Berger's Ways of Seeing, enfolded in tender and exuberant personal narratives - it's so sophisticated and fascinating, yet has a Calvinoesque light touch; all the textures and nuances come through without labour. Rigorous and mercurial." (Claire-Louise Bennett)

"The prose, in Thomas Bunstead’s translation, is restrained, funny, by turns (and at once) luminous and melancholy... We are left with a profound inquiry into the place and function of art... as remembrance, as joy and consolation, as meaning, as refuge" (Amy Sackville Guardian)

"A highly original, piercingly beautiful work, a book you’ll want to savour... Gainza is a writer who feels immediately important" (Johanna Thomas-Corr Observer)

"Quietly revelatory, and often fascinatingly so" (David Mills Sunday Times)

"When reading The Optic Nerve, works of art are like songs: they carry the excitement and mystery you feel when you stumble upon them. This is the stunning, lucid debut of a writer who finds gold in the most forgotten folds of experience." (Alan Pauls)

María Gainza was born in Buenos Aires, where she still lives. She has worked as a correspondent for The New York Times in Buenos Aires, as well as for ArtNews. For more than ten years she was a regular contributor to the magazine
Artforum and Radar, the cultural supplement of Página/12. She has given courses for artists and art critic workshops and was a co-editor of the collection Los Sentidos (The Senses) on Argentinean art.