Neoludica: Art and Videogames 2011–1966

The catalog for Neoludica, an Italian exhibition on art and video games held in conjunction with the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011. Written by curator and historian Luca Traini and art critic Debora Ferrari, it traces the relationship between visual art and video games from the 1960s to the present, working backwards from the contemporary moment to the earliest intersections of the two forms. Thirty essays cover thirty-three artists, with color images, artist biographies, and historical context for each. The book's central argument is that video games have become a genuine art form that the mainstream cultural world has been slow to recognize, and that the exchange between games and other arts, including cinema, music, literature, and visual art, has been running in both directions for decades. Dense with images and written from an art-critical rather than a gaming perspective, it holds up well as a reference alongside more history-focused titles. Paperback, 6.75 x 9 inches, 230 color images. Published by Skira in 2012.

Skira is a Milan-based publisher founded in 1928, known for high-quality art books and exhibition catalogs across modern and contemporary art. For readers interested in the critical and institutional history of games as an art form, or in the overlap between game culture and the contemporary art world.