Ed Atkins is one of the most influential artists of his generation. Troubled by melancholy, undermined by bathos, and tempered with humor, his works pit a weightless digital life against a corporal world of craft and touch, allegorizing profound experiences of loss, intimacy, and love Ed Atkins is one of the most influential artists of his generation. Troubled by melancholy, undermined by bathos, and tempered with humor, his works pit a weightless digital life against a corporal world of craft and touch, allegorizing profound experiences of loss, intimacy, and love. This ambitious publication provides a radical survey of his career, assembling a wide range of paintings, writing, embroideries, and drawings alongside the moving-image works for which he is best known. Essays from leading scholars, authors, and curators, alongside previously unpublished behind-the-scenes production photographs and a curated selection of new drawings, collectively probe AtkinsÂ’s practice to ask: What kind of realism is at stake here?