'Skin Crafts' not 'Skin Grafts' is a conceptually, witty and compelling opening to Skin Crafts. In Julia Skelly's powerful narrative, textiles and ceramics act as material metaphors for violated, black and indigenous skin. Moving in the space between skin and critical craft studies, Skelly skilfully unpacks the affective, visual and political power of key art works, Lubaina Himid, Doris Salcedo and Nadia Myre among them, reflecting on the violence and scarring caused by colonialism and discrimination. Essential reading.

Janis Jefferies, Goldsmiths University of London, UK

Forensic, crafty coolness pervades this sly, salacious, suffering text. Dispassionate, elegant, surgical examination of bodies, their performance of violence, trauma, wounds … Excoriating, visceral and repugnant, otherizing damage done unto queer, female, migrant and indigenous bodies, those colonized and enslaved, this text screams salvation from each page.

Catherine Harper, University for the Creative Arts, UK