The artist Adrian Howells took his own life in March of 2014. Deirdre (Dee) Heddon and Dominic Johnson had a rather daunting task when compiling this anthology. Both had worked with Howells, experienced many of his performances, and were intimate friends. At the same time, they realized the importance of situating Howells's work within the history of live art, a task made even more urgent given the ephemerality and privacy of the work as well as the fact that Howells was no longer present to continue making it. In the final five years of his life, Howells, in spite of suffering terribly from depression, had journeyed from campy, theatrical, autobiographical productions (often in the guise of his tabard-clad alter ego Adrienne) to performances of radical self-abnegation infused with a quiescent yet potent spirituality. Howells, whose background was in theatre, had developed a series of powerfully moving one-to-one performances in conjunction with his 2006–9 Research Council Fellowship at the University of Glasgow. Held (2006), The Pleasure of Being: Washing, Feeding, Holding (2010–11), Foot Washing for the Sole (2008–12), and The Garden of Adrian (2009) were conducted mostly in silence, as Howells gently administered care: feeding, bathing, foot washing, holding and spooning. Howells's final pieces were so astonishingly original that it was truly incumbent to somehow convey their significance, whilst simultaneously including space for the tributes and reminiscences of those who knew Howells well. It is a testament to the editors that they managed to address both an intimate audience of close friends and the larger academic audience of the live-art sector.

The book itself is simply gorgeous, a fitting paean to a sensitive boy fatally attracted to glittery things, to paraphrase two of the four video titles screened for An Audience with Adrienne (2006–10). Copiously illustrated with colour photographs, the book is leavened with personal accounts and tributes to Howells, my favourite being that of Marcia Farquhar, whose pyjamas were turned into a muddy-coloured mess during a performance of Adrienne's Dirty Laundry Experience (2005). Johnson and Heddon also include scholarly articles that address the structure and psychological impact of one-to-one performances (Heddon, Helen Iball and Rachel Zerihan), the documentation of the intimate encounter (Jon Cairnes), the implications of Howells's affective labour in a neo-liberal economy (Stephen Greer), and a compelling discussion of the medieval and Christological history of the foot/sole in Howells's best-known performance, Footwashing for the Sole (Kathleen Gough). The entire book is framed by an excellent introduction that situates Howells's work in relationship with relational aesthetics, immersive performance, dialogical aesthetics and the politics of feminine/queer labour. Mindful of the audience that would not be familiar with Howells's work, the editors included a biographical survey of Howells's oeuvre that spanned his beginning in high school to his final performance, Lifeguard. An extensive bibliography concludes the volume.

As an artist, Howells used the material of his own life – his sensitivity, his childhood bedwetting, his queerness, and his severe depression – in order to craft a body of work that ultimately moved away from the particulars and towards the universal and authentic, as problematic as those terms might be. As Jennifer Doyle, whose essay concludes the volume, wrote, ‘these performances yield a basic encounter with one's own vulnerability – why would we think they didn't do that for the artist, or that they shouldn't?’ It's All Allowed, the title taken from Howells's motto, is as vulnerable and beautiful as its subject.