This paper offers a close reading and a ‘deep’ contextualization of Woman Sculpture of the World (sic), a photographic compendium authored by Lee Seung-taek and published by Yeolhwadang in 1976. Best known for his subversive experimentation with traditional materiality and the concept of sculpture, known as ‘non-sculpture’, critical studies on Lee’s artistic practice continue to grow, yet remain fragmented: his non-sculptures have variously appeared in the contexts of Korean avant-garde art, conceptual art, and postmodernism, among others. Futhermore, they have repeatedly undermined the significance and relevance of Woman Sculpture of the World , a magnum opus which contains carefully selected, edited and arranged black-and-white photographic plates of sculptures from different historic periods and cultures. Revisiting this hitherto overlooked publication, this paper examines its objectives, editorial composition, and the ways in which Lee sought to situate his own practice by ‘re-worlding’ the history of sculpture. This paper thus argues that the publication takes part in Lee’s experimentation with sculpture, which arises from bracketing the conventional notion of the genre with that which it is not.

Lee Seung-taek, art publication, woman sculpture of the world, contemporary Korean sculpture, non-sculpture, photo-picture