Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice

A philosophical defence of art against the media, consumer culture and artificial intelligence that Martel calls artifice.

Martel draws on examples from Paleolithic cave art to contemporary cinema. His argument is that real art discloses unseen forces shaping existence, forces that sit outside politics, technology and culture, while artifice aims to manipulate or distract its audience. Art, in his account, opens rifts onto the sublime and the weird and reconnects readers with the mystery at the centre of the world. This Basic Books edition, published in May 2025, carries an introduction by the novelist Donna Tartt and a new afterword by the author.

J.F. Martel is a writer and lecturer on art, culture and philosophy who lives in Ottawa. With the musicologist Phil Ford he hosts the art and philosophy podcast Weird Studies. The book first appeared in 2015 from North Atlantic Books under the subtitle A Treatise, Critique, and Call to Action.