Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice

A Treatise, Critique, and Call to Action (Manifesto)
By J.F. Martel

"My son introduced me to J. F. Martel’s Weird Studies podcast—which then made me aware of Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice, his calm and cogent manifesto for the transformative power of art to reconnect us with the intrinsic strangeness of the world and the radical mystery at the heart of it. “Art astonishes and is born of astonishment,” offers Martel, and: “true art reveals the unseen forces shaping our existence—forces that transcend politics, technology, and even culture. In contrast to artifice, which seeks to manipulate or distract, authentic art calls us back to the essence of things, opening ‘rifts’ onto the sublime and the weird.” The book is a lucid lament for endangered and disappearing things (languages, the biosphere, our sense of wonder) and an invigorating call to arms against “the onslaught of predatory capitalism, spectacle culture, and myopic technological progress.” Martel’s graceful and incisive work of philosophy aims to restore us to the outlying lands beyond opinion and ideology—to “the ominous and the numinous, the terrifying sublime”—that is to ART, from the cave beginnings to David Lynch and beyond."
–Herbert Pföstl

In Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice, J. F. Martel offers a compelling and incisive meditation on the nature of art in a world dominated by invasive media, rampant consumer culture, and artificial intelligence. Drawing on a wide range of examples, from Paleolithic cave art to contemporary cinema, Martel argues that true art reveals the unseen forces shaping our existence—forces that transcend politics, technology, and even culture. In contrast to artifice, which seeks to manipulate or distract, authentic art calls us back to the essence of things, opening “rifts” onto the sublime and the weird and reconnecting us with the radical mystery at the heart of the world.

Featuring an introduction by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Donna Tartt, this edition also includes a new afterword by the author, reflecting on the continued relevance of art in our increasingly mediated world.

2025; paperback; 5.5" 8.25"; 224 pages: ISBN: 9781541607248.