This book brings together a collection of essays each of which fundamentally questions the meaning of the word iconoclasm as a descriptive category. Each contribution examines the impact of iconoclastic acts on different representational forms, and assesses the development and historical implications of these various destructive and transformative behaviours.

Contents: Introduction, Stacy Boldrick and Richard Clay; What does iconoclasm create? what does preservation destroy? reflections on iconoclasm in East Asia, Fabio Rambelli and Eric Reinders; Attacks on automata and eviscerated sculptures, Aura Satz; Iconoclasm and consumption: or, household management according to Thomas Cromwell, Matthew Hunter; Iconoclasm, the commodity, and the art of painting, Charles Ford; Bouchardon's statue of Louis XV: iconoclasm and the transformation of signs, Richard Clay; 'Wyatt the destroyer': a vandal at Salisbury Cathedral?, Alexandrina Buchanan; Clastic icons: prints taken from broken or reassembled blocks in some 'popular prints' of the Western tradition, Tom Gretton; Making sense of iconoclasm: popular responses to the destruction of religious images in revolutionary Mexico, Adrian Bantjes; Surrealism in the Bronze Age: statuephobia and the efficacy of metaphorical iconoclasm, Simon Baker; Sturm auf das stadtbild: on the treatment of Wilhelminian architectural decoration in the 20th century, Hans Georg Hiller von Gaertringen; 'Idols in stone' or empty pedestals? debating revolutionary iconoclasm in the post-Soviet transition, Polly Jones; Hermetic huts and modern state: the politics of iconoclasm in West Africa, Ramon Sarró; Select bibliography; Index.