Reading List: Johanna Hedva

Journey through explorations of queerness, artificial intelligence, dystopia, love and speculative fiction in this reading list by the Korean-American writer, artist, and musician Johanna Hedva.

Head below to discover some of the inspiration behind Johanna Hedva’s Who Listens and Learns (29 November – 5 March 2023), a mystical artwork exploring magic and AI technology, presented in Modern Art Oxford’s Café and online until 5 March 2023.

For a limited period, a selection of the below books are available to buy in Modern Art Oxford’s Shop.


Blue and white book cover with a cow reading: The Wall, Marlen Haushofer

The Wall, Marlen Haushofer (1963)

The Wall is a feminist survival story and loving portrait of a relationship between a woman and her animals. It tells the story of a woman holidaying in a hunting lodge in the Austrian mountains, who awakens one morning to find herself separated from the rest of the world by an invisible wall. Discover more.


Book cover with a pink sea anenome with the words: Tentacle, Rita Indiana

Tentacle, Rita Indiana (2018)

Tentacle delves into themes including climate change, technology, queer politics and contemporary art. Set on the streets of a post-apocalyptic Dominican Republic, a young maid finds herself at the heart of a Santería prophecy: only she can travel back in time and save humanity from disaster. But first she must become the man she always was – with the help of a sacred anemone. Discover more.


Red book cover with black words: Atlas of Anomalous AI, edited by Ben Vickers and K Allado-McDowell

Atlas of Anomalous AI, edited by Ben Vickers and K Allado-McDowell (2020)

Atlas of Anomalous AI provides a fascinating journey into our complex relationship to intelligence, from ancient to emerging systems of knowledge. Discover more.


Journal page with the title: TransMaterialities

TransMaterialities, Karen Barad. In GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies (2015)

Karen Barad’s free online article makes an argument for the “radically deconstructive, queer, and trans nature of nature, including nature’s own engagement with materialist practices of imaginings.” Read it now.


Purple book cover with a hare and the words: Cursed Bunny, Bora Chung

Cursed Bunny, Bora Chung (2021)

Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker International Prize, this genre-defying collection of short stories by Korean author Bora Chung fuses horror, magical realism and science-fiction. Discover more.


Rose pink book cover with a black abstract line drawing, and the words: Johanna Hedva, On Hell

On Hell, Johanna Hedva (2021)

Both tender and brutal, Johanna Hedva’s On Hell is a novel about escaping and the myths that trick and resist totalitarianism, telling the story of an ex-con whose body is broken by American empire. Discover more.


Dark book cover with a figure that has the face of a skull and yellow flowers, with the words: The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enriquez, author of Things We Lost in the Fire.

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enriquez (2022)

Written against the backdrop of contemporary Argentina, Mariana Enriquez’s stories of the macabre feature unruly teenagers, crooked witches, homeless ghosts, and hungry women who walk between the blurred lines of urban realism and horror. Discover more.


Light yellow book cover with a green dragon fly and a tropical plant with black words reading: Annihilation, Jeff Van Der Meer

Annihilation, Jeff Van Der Meer (2014)

Four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and the biologist narrator are tasked with mapping the terrain of Area X, which has been cut off from civilisation for decades. Discover more. 


Book with waves of colour in red, orange and green with the face of a woman and the words: Dawn, Octavia Butler

Dawn [Xenogenesis series, Book. 1], Octavia Butler (1997)

This post-apocalyptic story by the award winning science fiction author explores gender and race and follows a woman called upon to rebuild the future of humankind after a nuclear war.  Discover more.


Beige book cover with a person standing on top of an orange with the words: The Emissary, Yoko Tawada

The Emissary, Yoko Tawada (2018)

Funny and playful, Yoko Tawada’s family drama is set in a Japan that has cut itself off from the world after suffering a massive, irreparable disaster. In this world, children are born so weak they can barely walk, leaving the elderly to bring things to life. Discover more.


Book cover with a portrait of a woman  and the words:  The Memory Police, Yoko Ogawa

The Memory Police, Yoko Ogawa (2020). Translated by Stephen Snyder

A finalist for the International Booker Prize, The Memory Police has been described as a “haunting Orwellian novel” exploring the terrors of state surveillance on an unnamed island. Discover more.

Fall into the mystical artwork Who Listens and Learns by Johanna Hedva, on until 5 March 2023 in Modern Art Oxford’s Café and online.

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