This book reflects on the motivations of creative practitioners who have moved out of cities from the mid-1960s onwards to establish creative homesteads.

Sarah Lowndes is a writer and curator who lectures at Glasgow School of Art and other institutions

Contents; List of Figures; Preface; Acknowledgments; PART I; Introduction ; 1 The Back to the Land Movement: from the 1840s to the 1970s; PART II; The Creative Homesteads of Agnes Martin, Derek Jarman and Chris Burden; 2 We are Born as Nouns Not Verbs: Agnes Martin and the New Mexico Desert (1968-2004); 3 Vaster than Empires and More Slow: Derek Jarman and Prospect Cottage, Dungeness, Kent (1987-1994; 4 In a Free Spot: Chris Burden and Topanga Canyon, California (1984-2015); PART III; The Rise of the Town-Country: Contemporary Creative Homesteaders; 5 The Lure of the Midsize Metro: Leipzig; 6 Neither City nor Country: Hastings; 7 In the ruins, a garden: Detroit; Conclusion; Index