In this important new survey, Catherine Wood proposes that performance is not a genre of art separate from object making but rather an attitude that has infiltrated the entire terrain of contemporary art. Examining in turn individual, social, and object-based approaches, Wood first examines the influential performance art of the 1960s to 1980s: the body art of the Viennese actionists, the raw performances of Yoko Ono and Chris Burden, and the experiments of the Japanese Gutai group, among others. She then explores how these sources have been revisited, reformed, or rejected by con- temporary artists in the 21st century. This impressive book includes international artists who fall outside the traditional European and North American focus, giving the reader the broadest and most up-to-date insight into the subject yet published.