Objects of Desire: An Artist in Venice

A contemporary painter finds inspiration in Venice, where the canals, art, and architecture guide her thoughts on female desire, love, grief, and memory in this hybrid work of creative nonfiction.

In the spring of 2023, Celia Paul arrived in Venice for an artist’s residency. Objects of Desire is a mesmerising record of her painting practice in the labyrinthine city known as La Serenissima and of the themes that preoccupied her during this residency: female desire and love, mortality, and mem...