Asta Nielsen and Urban Gad on the set of *The Dance of the Dead (Der Totentanz)*, 1912

Asta Nielsen and Urban Gad on the set of The Dance of the Dead (Der Totentanz), 1912

Alsdorf is writing a book on love and collaboration in Scandinavian art during and after the Modern Breakthrough (1870-1920), informed by the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard. Chapters explore painting, photography, and silent film, centering on couples who made artworks together: Vilhelm and Ida Hammershøi, Anna and Michael Ancher, P. S. and Marie Krøyer, Marie Høeg and Bolette Berg, Asta Nielsen and Urban Gad, Hilma af Klint and Anna Cassel.

With her colleague Carolyn Yerkes she is working on a book about Jacques Callot, the seventeenth-century etcher who transformed printmaking with his technical innovations and artistic ambition, in conjunction with an exhibition at the Princeton University Art Museum in 2029.

For nonsite (nonsite.org), she is preparing a special issue on modern Scandinavian art with contributions from American and Scandinavian scholars, including curators and conservators.



Books in Progress


Love and Collaboration in Modern Scandinavian Art
Jacques Callot: The Human Scale

Other Projects


New Perspectives on Modern Scandinavian Art. Special issue of nonsite (nonsite.org). Forthcoming 2027.
Parallèlement: Intimacy in Print
Article on Pierre Bonnard’s illustrations of Paul Verlaine’s scandalous book of erotic, bohemian, and religious poetry, Parallèlement (1900)