Publications
Deanna Petherbridge authored numerous catalogue essays and book chapters, and published widely in academic journals on both contemporary and historical issues in art and architecture, with a particular focus on drawing. Her writing appeared regularly in publications including Architectural Review, Art Monthly, Architects’ Journal, Crafts Magazine, Building Design and the Financial Times.
Petherbridge’s book The Primacy of Drawing: Histories & Theories of Practice, Yale University Press was published June 2010 in the USA and UK. It examines the importance of drawing as significant practice in Western art history from the fifteenth century as well as its relevance to contemporary artists working with multiple practices: the book proposes an ambitious and novel agenda for the study of drawing. A thoroughly revised edition of The Primacy of Drawing was published in January 2026 by Thames and Hudson.
She was a Research Scholar at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2001–2002), and held a research fellowship at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (2007).
The archive of her writings is held at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, which also holds select books from Petherbridge’s Library. For more information, see Archive and Library.
For coverage in magazines, journals and newspapers, see Selected Press.
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Revised Edition of The Primacy of Drawing: Histories and Theories of Practice, London & New York: Thames & Hudson
“A thoroughly revised edition of this definitive book, the most comprehensive study of drawing ever published.”
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Deanna Petherbridge, Drawing as Metaphor, monthly series of seven articles on own drawings from this period
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Deanna Petherbridge, ‘The Haptic Eye/I’, Joy Hester: Remember Me, Kendrah Morgan (ed), exhibition catalogue, Melbourne: Heide Museum of Modern Art, 2020 Deanna Petherbridge, ‘Drawing: Practice and Politics’, Drawing Research Theory Practice, Vol.5 No.1 2020
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Deanna Petherbridge, ‘Leaking, Shrieking and Venomous Bodies: European Witch Imagery in the Sixteenth Century’ in Daniel Zamani, Judith Noble and Merlin Cox (eds) Visions of Enchantment: Occultism, Magic and Visual Culture, [Select papers from the University of Cambridge Conference], Fulgur Press, UK, 2019, pp.50- 66
Deanna Petherbridge, ‘The Drawing Experiment at the Royal College of Art 1995 – 2001’ in The International Encylopedia of Art and Design, R. Hickman, J.Baldacchino, K. Freedman, E. Hall and N. Meager (eds) Pedagogy Vol.3, Oxford: John Wiley & Sons Ltd 2019 (ISBN 978-1-118-97807-8)
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Artists at Work, The Drawings Gallery, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN, 3rd May -15th July 2018 
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Essay ‘Destruction and Graphics Strategies of Excess’ in Deanna Petherbridge: Places of Change & Destruction, Drawings 2017
Art Space Gallery | Michael Richardson Contemporary Art, London
ISBN 978-0-9957524-1-2
Catalogue Essay, ‘Faultlines’, The Drawing Works at Patriothall Gallery, Stockbridge, Edinburgh Art Festival, 4th – 27th August 2017
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‘Some Thoughts on the Social Co-option of Drawing’, Studio Research Journal, William Platz (guest ed.), No. 4, November 2016, pp. 4-16 (Griffith University, Queensland Collage of Art)
‘On Drawing’, Deanna Petherbridge interviewed by Richard Bright, in Drawing Thoughts, Interalia Online Magazine, January 2016
Essay ‘The Phoenix Effect’ in Wendy Smith: Touching the Surface
Art Space Gallery | Michael Richardson Contemporary Art, London
December 2015 ISBN 978-0-9571502-1-8
‘Abject Bodies and Places of Enchantment’ in Judith Noble, Dominic Shepherd et al (eds.) BLACK MIRROR I Embodiment, South Petherton, Somerset: Fulgur, 2016, pp 75-100
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Review of Drawing People: The Human Figure in Contemporary Art in ‘The Art Newspaper’, October 2015
Essay The Space between Us: Drawings by Sophie Dickens, Cantate Communications, UK, August 2015
Wild Humours versus Graphic Inventions: The drawings of Romney & Gainsborough in ‘Transactions of the Romney Society’, Volume 19, 2014 (2015)
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Graphic Intersections: Erga, Parerga and Pro-Erga – 0085 in special issue ‘When Art History Meets Design History’, edited by Anne Puetz & Glenn Adamson, RIHA (International Association of Research Institutes in the History of Art) Journal, March
Essay in Madge Gill: Medium & Visionary, catalogue to accompany the exhibition, Orleans House Gallery, Riverside, Twickenham, October 2013 – January 2014
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Witches & Wicked Bodies, catalogue to accompany the exhibition, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh from July – November in association with the British Museum, National Galleries Scotland, 2013 ISBN 978 1 906270 55 1
Narratives of Arrival and Resolution, Abstract works on paper (Belinda Cadbury, Sarah Cawkwell, Wendy Smith, Alison Turnbull) ISBN 978 0 9571502 6 3
Art Space Gallery | Michael Richardson Contemporary Art, London
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The Impossibility of Landscape, FUKT Magazine for Contemporary Drawing, Issue No. 11, August 2012, pp.75-79
On Drawing: A Transatlantic Conversation, between Alyssa E. Fanning & Deanna Petherbridge
Surface/Infinity: Vija Celmins, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Exhibition catalogue, Craig F. Starr Gallery, New York, USA
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The Primacy of Drawing: Histories & Theories of Practice, Yale University Press, London & New Haven ISBN 978-0-300-12646-4
Burlington Magazine, No. 1296, Vol. 152, March 2011
www.deannapetherbridge.com/pages/Profile/Burlington_Magazine.html
John McDonald, Sydney Morning Herald, March, 2011
www.deannapetherbridge.com/pages/Profile/SMH-5-6-Mar-2011.html
(AUDIO) ABC Radio National, Sunday 27th February 2011 (24 mins)
www.deannapetherbridge.com/pages/Profile/Audio.html
London Evening Standard, end of year book review by Brian Sewell
Timothy Wilcox,’ Visual thinking’, Apollo, January 2011
Adrian Searle, The Guardian, July 2010
‘Deanna Petherbridge on Paul Nash’s Wire (1918)’, Tate Etc, Issue 21, Spring 2011, p.55 Library Journal, Art & Humanities review September 2010
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Nailing the Liminal: The Difficulties of Defining Drawing, in ‘Writing on Drawing: Essays on Drawing Practice & Research’, ed. S.W. Garner, Intellect Books, Bristol, pp. 265-285, ISBN 978-1-84150-200-7
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In Touch & Out of Mind: The Psychodynamics of Obsessive Drawing, in ‘Madness & Creativity’, ed. Richard Pine, Cambridge Scholars Press, Cambridge UK, pp. 265-285, ISBN 1-84718-091-4
On the Moving Line & the Future Subjunctive of Drawing in a post-Duchampian Age, Special Issue, Futures 39, Guest editor Juliet Steyn, No. 10, December 2007, pp. 1191-1200 ISSN 0016-3287
Perspectives on Art, Drawings from the UBS Art Collection on display at Tate Modern, London. Article series, The Sunday Telegraph, 4th May – 11th November
Cloning & Conceptualising: The Duality of Mike Roles Figurative Sculpture, in ‘Mike Roles Welcome to the Third Millenium’, Sue Atkinson, Catalogue, Broomhill Art, 2007 ISBN 0-9544910-0-9
Drawing as Subversive Practice, in ‘Drawing Board’, conference proceedings, eds. John Plowman & Catherine Burge, pp. 6-18, The University of Lincoln, Lincoln, ISBN 1-86050-209-1
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Drawing Inspiration, catalogue, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal (Lakeland Arts Trust)
Proceedings of the Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution, Volume 9 ISSN 1465-8496
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So much for received notions about ‘Sculptors Drawings’, Sculpture Journal Vol. XIII 2005, pp. 115-131 ISSN 1366-2724
On Models & Mickey Mouse, The International Journal of Art & Design Education, Vol. 24 No. 2, May 2005, pp. 126-137 ISSN 1476-8070
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Constructing the Language of Line, in ‘John Flaxman 1755 – 1826: Master of the Purest Line’, ed. David Bindman, exhibition catalogue, Sir John Soane’s Museum & Strang Collection, University College, London, June 2003, pp. 6-13 ISBN 0 9542284 2 1
Two Cities: Two Modernities, catalogue, Monash University, Melbourne, October – November 2003 ISBN 0 975041 3 3
Reframing the Collection, introduction to 3rd edition of ‘Catalogue of the Women’s Art at New Hall’, New Hall, Cambridge, UK ISBN 0 9507108 4 9
Meditations on a Dirty Word, key-note address, ACUADS conference, Hobart, Australia
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At the Boundary of Mind & Hand, Idea and Form, The Art Newspaper, No. 128 September 2002
Subverting the Silicon: A Critique of Drawing, in ‘The Computer Age’, UME magazine No.14, Australia 2002
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Exhibitions, Legitimacy & Intellectual Ownership, The Producers: Contemporary Curators in Conversation, No. 11, eds. Susan Hiller & Sarah Martin BALTIC, Newcastle, UK ISBN 0 7017 0118 8
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Protocols of Drawing: Drawing with the Pencil through the Lens, in ‘Drawing Across Boundaries’, ed. Judith Mottram, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK
Presenting the Past, in ‘Drawing the Future’, Symposium Proceedings, Department of Design, University of Huddersfield, UK
Elisabeth Vellacott: The Poetics of Reticence’ in Elisabeth Vellacott A Memorial Exhibition, ed. Quentin Stevenson. The Redfern Gallery, London
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D rawing Towards the ‘real’ in Sculpture, at ‘Goodwood; Drawings & Models 1994 – 1998’. Exhibition catalogue, Goodwood
Lines of Acculturation, in ‘Lines of Desire: International Drawing Exhibition’, eds. Jagjit Chuhan, Kim Merrington, Alnoor Mitha. Exhibition catalogue, Liverpool Art School & Oldham Art Gallery &Museum, touring dates April 1998 – June 1999
ISBN 0952316109
Corps a vif: Art et anatomie, eds. Deanna Petherbridge, Andrea Carlino, Claude Ritschardt, Musee d’Art et Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland 1998 ISBN 2 8306 0158 0
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The Quick & the Dead: Artists & Anatomy, National Touring Exhibitions Hayward Gallery Publishing, 1997 ISBN 1 85332 172 9
University of California Press ISBN 0 5202 1738 1
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Artists with Attitude, in ‘Intersection: A meeting of Art & Architecture’. Convention papers Royal Australian Institute of Architects, Adelaide & Sydney, Australia
Drawing backwards into the future: Formulating an agenda in ‘Issues in Art & Education, Aspects of the Fine Art Curriculum’, ed. Paul Hetherington, Wimbledon School of Art & Tate Publishing, London, 1996 ISBN 1 85437 203 3
The Riverscape Project: Art & Regeneration in ‘Riverscape’ Four International Artist Residencies, River Tees, Cleveland, UK
ISBN 0 9521280 0 4
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Sylvia Melland A Retrospective Exhibition (1906 – 1993), Exhibition catalogue, Boundary Gallery, London
Art for Architecture: The Jerwood Art for Architecture Award, RSA, Department of National Heritage, The Jerwood Foundation, London
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The Art World’s Micro-Economy in Developing the Visual Arts, ed. Eric Moody, City University, London
Bhajan Hunjan, exhibition catalogue, Cartwright Hall, South Hill Park Trust, Bradford, UK
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Cecily Sash, exhibition catalogue, Oriel 31, Powys, UK
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Peter Fink, exhibition catalogue, Prague, 1992
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The Primacy of Drawing: An Artist’s View, A National Touring Exhibition from the South Bank Centre, Royal Festival Hall, London 1991 ISBN 1 85332 078 12 0 0 5
S.W. by N.E Exhibition Catalogue, Indar Pasricha Fine Arts, London
Panayotis Cacoyannis, exhibition catalogue, Todd Art Gallery, London
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Reeling, Writhing & Fainting in Coils, in ‘Writing About Art’, proceeds of a conference at Gregynog Hall, Powys, 1988. The Welsh Arts Council & Department of Extramural Studies, The University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, pp. 49-56, 1990
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Ceramic Sculptures by Madhumita Bose-Thomas, exhibition catalogue British Council, Calcutta, India
Perspectiva, Prospectiva, in ‘Vista in Piranesi’s Prisons: A Perspective’, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, UK
The Muralist as Part of the Design Team, Interior Designers Yearbook, Grosvenor Press, London
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Conversations, in ‘Temples & Tenements: The Indian Drawings of Deanna Petherbridge’, George Michell, John McEwen. Seagull Books in association with Fischer Fine Art Ltd., Calcutta, India
A Certain Level of Terror, in ‘Denis Masi’, exhibition catalogue, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, UK
Art for Architecture, ed. Deanna Petherbridge, HMSO, London, 1987
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A Critical Survey of Contemporary Mural Painting, proceedings of the 1983 National Mural Conference, Wolverhampton Polytechnic, 1984 & edited version in Murals in the UK, Research Training Initiatives, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
The Writing on the Wall, Interior Designs Handbook, Grosvenor Press
One Per Cent, exhibition catalogue, Levitt Bernstein Associates, London
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Passionate & Dispassionate Patronage, four commissions in ‘Context Exaggerations of a Public Order’ in ‘Art Within Reach’, ed. Peter Townsend, Thames & Hudson, London, 1984
Tess Jaray: Prints & Drawings 1964 – 1984, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK
Nineteen Eighty-Four, Awkright Trust, Camden Arts Centre, London
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Public Commissions & the New Concerns in Sculpture, in ‘The Sculpture Show’, Arts Council of Great Britain, London
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Paul Neagu: Writhing Space, exhibition catalogue, Ceolfrith Press No. 65, Sunderland, UK
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The Iron Siege of Pavia & Other Drawings, exhibition catalogue, ed. Jasia Reichardt, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1975