What happens when an artist known for testing the limits of the human body turns her attention to the mind? For Marina Abramović, the answer is Long Life, Short Stories, a new illustrated book that trades the spectacle of her famed performance art for something more personal. Here, she intends to chronicle memories through drawings and reflections on the experiences that have shaped her life.
Arriving as the pioneering performance artist turns 80, the 224-page volume offers a different way to understand a practice built around vulnerability, endurance and the psychology of human connection.
When is it being released?
The book was released on 6 October 2026 through Rizzoli as a 224-page hardcover. You can purchase it via Amazon, Rizzoli, and participating book stores globally.
What does the book reveal beyond the performances?
Published by Rizzoli Electa, Long Life, Short Stories moves between anecdotes, original illustrations and philosophical observations, covering subjects as varied as love, sex, loss, fear, ancestry, nature, dreams and even love spells. Rather than following a conventional autobiographical timeline, the book takes a more fragmented approach, allowing intimate recollections and unexpected digressions to sit alongside broader questions about creativity and existence.
The format offers a fresh perspective on an artist whose work has often been examined through physical endurance and the relationship between performer and audience. From Rhythm 0 to her landmark 2010 Museum of Modern Art retrospective, The Artist Is Present, Abramović has made the body a site of experimentation. Here, however, the focus shifts towards the inner life behind those public encounters, with humour and personal reflection complicating her familiar image.
Why now?
The book arrives during a milestone year for Abramović, whose career has helped establish performance art as a major contemporary discipline since the early 1970s. Its introspective approach provides a counterpoint to the physical intensity associated with her practice, suggesting that understanding an artwork also means considering the memories, fears and beliefs that inform its creation.
That perspective will extend beyond the page, as Abramović is scheduled to discuss the book with creative figure Michèle Lamy at Rizzoli Bookstore in New York on 29 October (the two have previously been in conversation for Hube Magazine).
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