The Pragmatism in the History of Art traces the questions that modern art history has used to make sense of the changes overtaking both art and life. Author and art historian Molly Nesbit explores these inquiries through an examination of a range of works by figures across art, philosophy, and film, including: Meyer Schapiro, T.J. Clark, Alexander Dorner, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Chris Marker, Lawrence Weiner, Gordon Matta-Clark, and more. Pragmatism is the first volume of Pre-Occupations, a series compiling Nesbit’s writings.

Drawn from a typographic history that runs parallel to the book’s subject matter, each of the two typefaces used—an American serif and a European sans serif—represent an idiosyncratic take on the modern by way of juxtaposition. Quoted material within the text is set in a monospaced font to highlight the intertextuality of these source materials.