Are you a woman trying to live your best modern life and just tired of the patriarchy? When you go to museums, do you enjoy laughing at classical art, saying "oooh, poor girl, I feel your pain!"? This is a hilarious book is for you! I don't know what else to say than that you must excuse me, I have to run off and pre-order this book for all of my friends and family.

*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


I love art and I am actually studying A level History of Art online at the moment. The author pairs traditional paintings with Twitter-worthy captions explaining the female experience and some men's patriarchal comments that are just plain ridiculous.

I really enjoyed the pairings of old art with new media. I can't really say much about this as it is more of what I would class as a gift book but it's something that I would buy someone for Christmas and would recommend to art lovers.

3 out of 5 stars!

This book is hilarious. The paintings chosen were perfect, and the captions capture pretty much whatever I think is happening in the painting when I go to this room of the museum. I have always wondered why exactly the women were so bored and miserable, and this book has specific answers. This is the kind of art history book I would like to have on my shelf. I wish so many of these painting events had not actually happened to me in real life.

Thanks to Chronicle Books, Nicole Tersigni, and NetGalley for this fun read, in which I got to educate myself about art while making fun of it at the same time.

This is a hilarious art book. So many of the captions are very relatable for women everywhere. The captions matched the art well. If you like art and feminist commentary - you will love this. It was a nice break from covid-19. I will probably get a copy for my coffee table.

Capturing the zeitgeist perfectly. Funny, sarcastic, and relevant, this makes for a light read and a perfect present.

This might be fine if Daniel Lavery hadn't done it one million times better in his Western Art History series on the Toast (https://the-toast.net/series/western-art-history/). Some of these got a proto-giggle out of me, but mostly the author put too fine a point on the joke. These paintings are beautiful and interesting and most of the text seems like a first-draft.

A cross between satire, classical fine art and gender study, "Men to Avoid in Art and Life" is a sarcastic portrayal of what the term "mansplaining" looks like in the eyes of contemporary women. Have you ever followed those meme pages where people in fine art are "saying" totally absurd things? That's precisely what we find in this book - but very much an extended version, under the hashtag #feminism.

I cringed and laughed my way through this book in the best way possible. I have never related to women in fine art more and therefore had an unstoppable urge to share some of the content with friends. One could argue that making jokes of misogyny is potentially problematic, but Tersigni skillfully avoids that trap by simply roasting the very misogynistic subjects. Some of the things they say are:
“We’ve been over this a million times. You can’t get pregnant if you’re on top. It’s called gravity.”
Or my favorite:
"Most girls only get an unsolicited look at my dick in their DMs. You're lucky you get one in person."

At the same time, the (probably mostly millennial) readers get a rare chance to admire classical art, which they can later identify through a handy index at the end of the book. However, I wish there was a bit more art history content to keep the reader involved such as intriguing facts about the artists - better yet, some absurd facts about the artists to keep up with the satirical theme.

That being said, this book is clearly not for everyone. Buy it for yourself or your feminist friends, but avoid sharing it with generally conservative people.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was the perfect funny short book I needed to cheer up during quarantine.

Nicole Tersigni has created a great blend where the reader can enjoy beautiful works of art, while at the same time laughing because of the oh-too-real dialogues that shouldn't feel so relatable.

Men to Avoid in Art and Life is a collection of paintings depicting men and women with the author's interpretation of sayings that the women may have been hearing at the time of the painting. Each woman's expression was so perfectly matched to the man's quote that it was easy to believe! As for the book itself, I loved this book! As a fan of art I not only appreciated the beautiful images, but I loved how each quote was perfectly paired with the painting. And sadly many of the quotes reminded me of the times I had heard the quote myself, but it helped to know that I was no alone! I simply loved this book and can't wait to gift it to the perfect friends in my life!

This is hysterical (omg please send me a physical copy!). I can already think of a few people that will be getting this as gifts. They need it! They are strong women who get mansplained constantly and I know will appreciate this.

Men to Avoid in Art and Life is a title too tempting to resist. I saw it on NetGalley and could not stop myself from having a look at it.

The idea is to pair classical paintings of couples with funny captions relating to men's behavior.

It is interesting how the author collected paintings where women seemed truly annoyed, bored, astonished or simply fed up.

Some jokes were better than others, but overall I enjoyed this book.

On a side note, I wish the information about the paintings was easily accessible. I had to keep going to the end of the book to find the names of those unknown to me.

An absolutely hilarious gift to the world. I loved flicking through Men to Avoid in Art and Life and rolling my eyes at the intensely relatable scenes. Next time I'm in a gallery, I'll look out for (or rather, swerve), men to avoid. This would be a great hashtag on Insta!

This book is for every woman who's ever been told they'd be much prettier if only they smiled. Honestly, I could relate to so many of the women in these portraits, especially given the dialogue Tersigni used to accompany these classic paintings. I would be hard-pressed to find a woman who hasn't been subjected to at least some of the examples given in this book of men to avoid.

Nicole Tersigni's idea for Men to Avoid in Art and Life is fun and silly and sure to bring a smile to the women in your life. She takes classic art and adds captions to bring some more modern sensibilities to the fore. She divides the book into sections dealing with mansplaining, sexperts, and misplaced concern.

This is funny stuff, even if it does base its humor on stale stereotypes about male attitudes and behaviors. Only the thinnest skinned man will be offended, and men and women alike will get a chuckle about the familiarity of the scenarios. (But it's other men, not me. . . .)

By the way, for the art lover, she provides a listing of the works and artists, as well as the museums where the are found.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

This was pretty good but it could have been so much better. I feel like a lot of the comments were either not as funny as they could have been [although still very true] or either felt like they were repeating themselves a lot. Also while there were a lot of really great pieces of art chosen, there were also several that didn't really feel like they fit with the comment that was put with them. It's a great idea but probably just needed a bit more editing with the comments and more time looking for appropriate pictures. It's really ridiculous how many old paintings have women in them that just look so entirely bored or annoyed and you have to wonder if that is because men saw that look on women's faces and went 'that must mean she's into me' or if the painter used a model and they were so annoying during the process that the model just had that look on her face the whole time. Overall pretty interesting but also I feel like I've seen better compilations of this on Tumblr so [shrug].

These pairings of paintings and captions made me laugh out loud. It will be a great gift to give good friends. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Nicole Tersigni has been attacking in all directions, for years. Men, life, her husband, her family, men, confinement, men … everything. Now she has collected her thoughts in a cartoonish little book called Men to Avoid in Art and Life. It’s a delightful small collection of scenes magnified out of classic European paintings, with Tersigni’s jaundiced captions over them.

Maybe I shouldn’t say jaundiced. That would come from a neutral observer. What they are really are finely targeted and accurate attacks on men abusing women out of total ignorance. Very little exaggeration was necessary to make her captions funny; men already provide. Free.

The book is divided into chapters of paintings, collecting men’s sins into neat buckets: The Mansplainer, The Concern Troll, The Comedian, The Sexpert, and The Patronizer.

The scenes are centered around a woman in a painting, with a man hovering while overexplaining something at her. The really great thing about the paintings is that Tersigni has found women who are just done. Tired of hearing the prattle, fed up with playing the bimbo, or holding off from a slew of expletives for lack of an AR-15 or a Deathstar. They look on, often breaking the fourth wall, like Jack Benny dumbfounded by the noise passing for information.

I leave you with a sampling:
“We’ve been over this a million times. You can’t get pregnant if you’re on top. It’s called gravity.”
“No one wants to see a woman with body hair. It’s unnatural.”
“Let me tell you something about the female body…”
“I know it’s hard for women to sit quietly. But close your eyes and listen. You might learn something.”
“…and women don’t have to be funny, because men are already attracted to them. That’s why only ugly women can tell a joke worth a damn. Anyway, nice to meet you. I’m Bob.”

David Wineberg

Very amusing with gorgeous color plates. Would make a fun coffee table or bathroom book.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a ARC copy for my review.

As an artist, I am always looking to find interesting books about visual arts, design techniques and unique takes on the arts. This book, while featuring some great artworks, isn't. While I might be accused of mansplaining, my only intent is to leave a review. The artwork I loved, the humor not so much. Well, maybe it was just a little funny...

Than again, should I put myself in their (female) shoes...

Thanks for the ARC, which I go in exchange for an honest review.

This was indeed funny, and I enjoyed the art. It also made me want to strangle someone at times though :-) The humor was biting, sarcastic, and just what I needed for a change while locked down at home for this virus that seems never ending. I’m thinking I need to read humor more often now. Thanks. Advanced electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Nicole Tersigni, and the publisher.