“A book full of love that makes you see what really matters, both in art and in life. Clever, tender, utterly overwhelming” - Ella Risbridger

In 2020, the artist Tom de Freston and his writer wife Kiran Millwood Hargrave discovered they were expecting twins. However, Kiran fell victim to miscarriage, thus beginning a long journey toward parenthood that involved the loss of six more pregnancies.

De Freston began to explore the experience of these losses through his art, seeking a way to understand the grief of himself and his wife. He finds representations of his feelings towards Kiran in the myth of Orpheus from Ovid, who, turning back to look at Eurydice, loses her to the Underworld. This story captures the longing for closeness within a couple, as well as the intense pain in the distance that separates them.

His search for understanding leads him to artists and artworks from Titian and Francis Bacon to Braca Ettinger and Gerhard Richter. As the miscarriages increased and De Freston became increasingly aware of the delicate physical experience that is pregnancy, he delves into the sexual invitation of the male gaze, his desire for connection, and the boundaries that exist between lovers and beloved, as well as between painter and painting.

A book addressed directly to De Freston’s wife, “Strange Bodies” is an intimate, authentic, and powerfully poignant narrative of a beloved relationship, throbbing with admiration and insight.

Pages: 256, Dimensions: 14.4x14.4cm