With her oppositional, politically engaged work, Nancy Spero (Cleveland, Ohio, 1926) is considered to be one of the most important artists of her generation. Over time Spero’s ‘peinture féminine’ has only gained in relevance. Codex Spero is a radical manifesto and an artistic testament. Editor Roel Arkesteijn, in close collaboration with the artist, has made a selection of her statements, correspondence, essays, lecture notes, interviews, personal photographs and other ego documents. Together these documents present a penetrating picture of Spero’s motives, her development and her significance as an artist. Spero’s pithy writings are schrewd, inspired, humorous, and often explosive. An overview of all the visual motifs that Spero has used in her work since the mid-1970s completes this volume. ISBN 978-90-77459-28-7