This art book is the definitive catalogue for the major international exhibition tracing the emergence of modern queer identities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The publication examines the period between 1869, when the term “homosexuality” first appeared in print, and the eve of the Second World War, a transformative era in which new understandings of gender, sexuality and selfhood took shape across Europe and the United States. The publication’s lead author, Jonathan D. Katz, received the Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award at the Stonewall Book Awards (2026) for The First Homosexuals.
The catalogue brings together paintings, drawings, photographs, archival materials, printed ephemera and early publications that document the formation of queer visual culture and the communities that surrounded it. Essays by leading scholars explore the intersections of art, literature, sexology, activism and the shifting legal and social frameworks that shaped the lives of queer individuals during this formative period. The volume highlights key figures, artistic networks and cultural spaces that contributed to the articulation of new identities and modes of representation.
In the United States the exhibition was presented in Chicago at Wrightwood 659 from May 2 to July 26, 2025 as a major project organized by Alphawood Exhibitions. The exhibition will be on view at Kunstmuseum Basel from March 7 to August 2, 2026, extending the international scope of the research and offering new dialogues within a European museum context.
Richly illustrated and grounded in original scholarship, the catalogue serves as an essential resource for historians, curators, researchers and readers interested in the cultural history of sexuality and the development of queer identities in the modern era.
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