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, 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 and exhibition on Jacques Callot, the seventeenth-century etcher who transformed printmaking with his technical innovations and artistic ambition.



Books in Progress


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

Other Projects


Parallèlement: Intimacy in Print
Article on Pierre Bonnard’s illustrations of Paul Verlaine’s scandalous book of erotic, bohemian, and religious poetry, Parallèlement (1900)
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Writings on Art
Translation with a critical introduction co-written with Todd Cronan.