Bond, Henry (2015) Life of Cindy: a biography of Cindy Sherman. London : [Self Published]. 286p.

Abstract

The first comprehensive biography of acclaimed, celebrated, and much-loved US artist Cindy Sherman, who turned sixty in 2014. Sherman is best known for her photographs of herself dressed and made up as a wide array of fascinating and sometimes bizarre characters, which she has continued for over forty years. Sherman has a reputation as a very private person off-camera. Now, discover the woman behind the myth in this new biography of one of the most pioneering and influential artists of our time. Henry Bond’s biography is a richly detailed and accessible account of visual art’s greatest enigma—from her first encounters with art as a child, to her college days in Buffalo, and step-by-step from that time, beginning with her arrival in New York during the Summer of Sam, in 1977. The subject of the book has offered many new insights to the author, and so too, a number of Sherman's circle has been forthcoming with recollections and clarifications—including her ex-husband Michel Auder and her former partners Robert Longo and Paul Hasegawa-Overacker. Sherman's life story is surprisingly dark: her older brother committed suicide when she was a teen; her former husband Michel was a heroin addict for many years; the art scene she emerged from was replete with sociopathic behaviour in Lower Manhattan, New York, in the late 1970s, which at that time resembled a lawless war zone more than a recognisable urban neighbourhood. This book is also the tale of a woman’s rise to success and wealth from humble beginnings: from a Long Island North Shore clapboard development to a grand 1840s home in East Hampton set in private gardens, where a flock of wild turkeys roam free.

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