Artists in need of instruction and inspiration have no shortage of books to consult, from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way to Austin Kleon’s Steal Like An Artist or Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act. Each volume offers dozens of cheerful directives that live somewhere between koan and bromide, encouraging readers to “Let yourself play” (Cameron), “Use your hands” (Kleon), and “Look inward” (Rubin).
In her new book, Art Work: On the Creative Life, Sally Mann is perhaps the first to provide some truly practical advice; nestled among suggestions for dealing with rejection, distraction, and perfectionism is her 1971 handwritten list of home remedies: “You will note about halfway down that intestinal worms are to be treated with raw garlic and rice,” she states, “but of course you clever young people know I was wrong about that: the best treatment for worms—pinworms anyway—is diatomaceous earth.”
But of course.
