First published in 1979 and now extensively updated, this pioneering book has been expanded with a definitive account of the technological, political and aesthetic shifts in performance art that mark its transition to the twenty-first century. An astonishing increase in the number of works and venues around the world testifies to this art form as the chosen medium for articulating "difference," whether dealing with issues of identity, multicultural or globalism. The desire for direct engagement with today's most prominent artists explains the wide appeal of performance art to the ever broadening audience for new art.

Mariko Mori, Paul McCarthy, and Matthew Barney, as well as the groups Forced Entertainment and Desperate Optimists, among many others, can now be seen in the historical context of other innovators in the field from the Dadaists to Laurie Anderson.