WORDLESS. The Performance Art of Rebecca Belmore

Wordless: The Performance Art of Rebecca Belmore is a comprehensive publication dedicated to the performance practice of Rebecca Belmore.

Spanning more than three decades, the book documents key performances and situates them within broader artistic, social, and political contexts.

Belmore’s work is grounded in the body as a site of memory, resistance, and presence. Her performances often address histories of colonial violence, displacement, and injustice, while also foregrounding resilience, dignity, and collective responsibility. Gesture, action, and material replace spoken language, emphasizing silence and embodiment as powerful forms of expression.

The publication brings together essays, reflections, and visual documentation by a range of contributors, creating a multi-voiced perspective on Belmore’s practice. Rather than offering a single interpretive framework, the book allows the complexity of her work to emerge through images, testimonies, and critical texts.

Wordless positions performance as a form of witnessing and insists on the political and emotional force of presence. The book stands as a significant contribution to the understanding of contemporary performance art and Indigenous artistic practice.