In Deleuze and Art Anne Sauvagnargues, one of the world's most renowned Deleuze scholars, offers a unique insight into the constitutive role played by art in the formation of Deleuze's thought. By reproducing Deleuze's social and intellectual references, Sauvagnargues is able to construct a precise map of the totality of Deleuze's work, pinpointing where key Deleuzian concepts first emerge and eventually disappear. This innovative methodology, which Sauvagnargues calls "periodization", provides a systematic historiography of Deleuze's philosophy that remains faithful to his affirmation of the principle of exteriority. By analyzing the external relations between Deleuze's self-proclaimed three philosophical periods, Sauvagnargues gives the reader an inside look into the conceptual and artistic landscape that surrounded Deleuze and the creation of his philosophy.

With extreme clarity and precision, Sauvagnargues provides an important glimpse into Deleuze's philosophy by reconstructing the social and intellectual contexts that contributed to the trajectory of his thought. This book is the product of insightful and careful research, which has not been made available to English readers of Deleuze before now.

“Readers will be impressed with Sauvagnargues' masterful grasp of Deleuze's entire oeuvre, and admire her tightly argued claims about how his aesthetics is based in empirical experimentation with material and social effects and real consequences for processes of subjectivation.” – Gary Genosko, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

“It is not easy to write a sober book on Deleuze. Anne Sauvagnargues, however, has achieved this difficult task. Deleuze and Art is remarkably clear, concise, systematic, and insightful. But more than sober, and a reason for jubilation, Sauvagnargues' Deleuze and Art looks to be an original work of philosophy. The manner in which she maps out Deleuze's thought turns out to present a “semiotics of the image” that seems to open question well beyond the scope of Deleuze's own thinking. Echoing Deleuze himself, we must say that Sauvagnargues' Deleuze and Art “forces us to think.”” – Leonard Lawlor, Sparks Professor of Philosophy, Penn State University,

“Anne Sauvagnargues has written an incisive, clear and carefully considered introduction to Deleuze and Guattari's writings on literature and art that will no doubt become one of the authoritative texts to which readers turn for insight on their enigmatic concepts and their dynamic understanding of art. This book addresses all the key texts of Deleuze to show the nuances and developments in the concepts he, together with Guattari, invented to think art beyond the artist and as a part of the way that the world affects itself. An excellent book!” – Elizabeth Grosz, Women's Studies, Duke University,

“An original and profound book from a renowned French commentator on Gilles Deleuze! It is an essential reading for those seeking to understand the depth and complexity of Deleuze's philosophy, which Anne Sauvagnargues pursues by exploring the relationships between Deleuze's thought and art. The book shows that Deleuze's philosophy was fundamentally shaped by these relationships and that it cannot be understood, without being impoverished, if considered apart from them. An admirable achievement of thinking and scholarship, this book will remain indispensable for years to come.” – Arkady Plotnitsky, Professor of English, Purdue University, USA,

“Anne Sauvagnargues is well-known in France as one of Deleuze's most original and incisive interpreters, and Samantha Bankston's fluid and accurate translation has at last made this important book accessible to English speaking readers. Deleuze and Art not only provides a wide-ranging analysis of Deleuze's writings on aesthetics, but uses the domain of art as a point of access into his entire philosophical system. This is a landmark text destined to become a classic in the interpretation of Deleuze's work.” – Daniel W. Smith, Associate Professor, Purdue University, USA

Anne Sauvagnargues is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris, Nanterre, France, and specializes in the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. She co-directs the collection “Lignes d'art” with Fabienne Brugère for Presses Universitaires de France, and in 2008 she published a book on Deleuze's philosophy entitled Transcendental Empiricism.