Book Description
A thrilling and eccentric novel about what it means to make art as a woman, and about the powerful forces of voyeurism, power, obsession, and online performance
Woo Woo follows Sabine, a conceptual artist on the verge of a photo exhibition she hopes will be pivotal, as she plunges deeper into her neuroses and seeks validation in relationships—with her frustratingly rational chef husband, her horde of devoted Gen Z TikTok followers, and even a mysterious, potentially violent stalker.
Accompanying her throughout are Sabine’s strange alter egos, from hyperrealistic puppets of her as a baby to the ghost of conceptual artist Carolee Schneemann, who shows up with inscrutable yet sage life advice.
Ella Baxter approaches the desire to see and be seen that defines both the creative and romantic act with humor, empathy, and a good dose of wildness, driving Sabine to an surreal and compelling climax that forces her—and us—to reconsider what it means to be an artist and a partner.
Praise For This Book
"Ella Baxter's Woo Woo is hysterically funny, a wild, unhinged journey into the heart of bewilderment. For Sabine, a conceptual artist, all of life, all of emotion, all human relationships, have the potential to become art. What does that mean when her newest exhibition nears, and a stalker makes himself known? This mordant, feral novel is an explosion of art and fury, and it is the best book I've read in a long while." —Lindsay Hunter, author of Hot Springs Drive"Ella Baxter has written a mesmerizing, strange, propulsive world of art and loneliness and sleep deprivation that swirls her readers around like wine in a glass, forcing us to reckon with who we are and what we believe. One of the few books about process and creation that doesn't get lost in its own self-importance, Woo Woo is a novel people will want to talk about for years to come. Baxter is a master." —Kelsey McKinney, author of God Spare the Girls
