Not on Display - by Zelba (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

An entertaining satire of nudity in the Louvre, Not on Display is a deeply serious, award-winning graphic novel examining the history of the female body in art and our society.

When one of the greatest museums in the world gave the illustrator Zelba free rein to make a graphic novel about great art, she knew exactly what she would do: address a double standard. She'd seen the Louvre's halls filled with sexualized female bodies, ogled at by crowds and sometimes even groped, and wanted to turn the tables. What if, she dreamed, those naked bodies refused to be the objects of our gaze? What if the female nudes in the Louvre went on strike?

The result, a co-edition with Editions Louvre, is a critique of great artists and great museums. Awarded the prestigious Prix Sceneario and the Prix Artemisia in France, the pages are filled with unforgettable characters, such as a heroic cleaner who can speak to statues and a museum director who secretly offloads his work onto his sister. Featuring well-known masterpieces, this entertaining romp displays one of the world's greatest art collections in a whole new light.

Review Quotes

Winner of the 2023 'Prix des Rédacteurs de Sceneario.com' for best graphic novel

Winner of the 2024 'Prix Artemisia humour', celebrating the best of graphic novels written by women

Nominated for the 2024 Elle Graphic Novel Prize

"Filled with plenty of fascinating art history, particularly in regard to how artists and sculptors portray gender, this thought-provoking and playful graphic novel will appeal to readers seeking nonfiction about art." - Booklist

"A delicious feminist farce" - Les Inrocks

"Amusing and serious, this graphic novel revisits the history of art in the light of the major issues of gender equality" - Beau-arts Magazine

"A scathing pamphlet on sexism cast in marble or in the canvases of classical art." - Le Soir

"A light-hearted satire with beautiful pen-and-ink style illustrations throughout. A must read for armchair art historians, feminists and readers looking for a comic done in an unforgettable art style." - Innisfree Bookshop

"A creative and captivating way to shed light on everyday sexism and the perception of the female form. Zelba's illustration style is captivating and beautifully done. I left this story with a who new perception on some of the world's greatest pieces of art." - Bookmarks, North Carolina

"A fun graphic novel with a refreshing take on a serious subject: the everyday sexism faced by women everywhere. Well written and thoughtful. The charming drawings and the setting in the Louvre add to its appeal." - Napa Bookmine

About the Author

Wiebke Petersen, aka Zelba, was born in West Germany in 1973.

Before becoming an illustrator, she was world junior rowing champion. In 2019, she published her first book, Dans le même bateau, an autobiographical account of her experience as a top sportswoman in East Germany at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Two years later, she returned with another autobiographical story, Mes mauvaises filles, about the right to die with dignity. With Le Grand Incident, she offers us a "fantasticomic" tale of the sexualization of the female body in art.

Alice Yang is a PhD student in French at Yale University. Her translation of Abounding Freedom, a collection of prose poetry by Julien Gracq, was published by World Poetry Books in 2024. She divides her time between New Haven, Conneticut, and Lyon, France.