Ashby's book examines afresh the complex origins, conditions and manifestations of International Art Nouveau through a series of evocative case studies drawn from a range of national contexts and organised around a series of compelling themes. This complicates and challenges our understanding of this key period in modern art, architecture and design and opens up fascinating new insights into the ways in which diverse historical actors grabbled with a rapidly changing world in their search for “a modern style for a modern age”

Sabine Wieber, Lecturer in History of Art, University of Glasgow, UK

Fresh and original in its approach, this study provides a comprehensive overview of Art Nouveau that considers the movement's origins in imperialism and networks of global trade alongside its links to the emerging discipline of psychoanalysis, the concept of the “New Woman”, and new patterns of patronage in the arts. By casting formal innovation and experimentation as profoundly entangled with the social, political, and economic transformations of fin-de-siècle society, Art Nouveau promises to forever change the way that we understand this movement and its relevance to our own historical moment.

Jessica M. Dandona, Professor of Liberal Arts, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, USA