Visual studies and visual culture are widely taught, but it isn't clear what either might be. Art historian James Elkins unpacks our uneasy relation to "the visual" and offers an introduction to what visual studies might be. In a series of chapters written in his engagingly clear prose, he offers a pocket history of visual culture, an explanation of the concept of visual literacy, an introduction to the Benjamin and Foucault as their work illuminates visual studies, and goes on to examine key concepts in visual culture, among them the theory of the gaze, the idea of hybridity, the use of semiotics, the concept of the "scopic regime." This groundbreaking book ends with the challenging questions "what does visual culture teach, and why does it seem so easy?" Visual Studies offers a coherent introduction to one of the most dynamic and problematic areas across the humanities.

詹姆斯·埃爾金斯（James Elkins），美國芝加哥藝術學院美術史論與批評係主任。著有：《繪畫與眼淚》、《視覺素養》、《視覺研究——懷疑式導讀》、《圖像域》、《身體的圖像——痛苦與變形》、《何為繪畫》、《我們的圖像為什麼會令人迷惑不解》、《為什麼藝術是不能教的？》、《藝術批評怎麼瞭？》以及《視覺品味——如何用你的眼睛》等。