What images come to mind with the words "women", "aging", "old", even "elderly"? Are they stereotypes? Are there any positive associations? The thirteen contributions to this edited volume explore a broad range of images of old women, ranging from medieval "old wives" to contemporary re-imaginations of shamans and witches and empowering self-portraits. Works from medieval Europe to colonialtime Polynesia, present West Africa, Japan, and the Americas, in a multiplicity of media are explored in detail. These studies of varied representations of "old women" offer fresh perspectives and an engaging dialogue about society's values and preconceptions regarding the wisdom of our elders and the "golden years" in different times and cultures.

Frima Fox Hofrichter is a Professor of the History of Art & Design at Pratt Institute, USA, author of Judith Leyster: A Woman Painter in Holland's Golden Age (1989) and Oxford's online bibliography Gender and Art in the 17th Century, and a co-author of Janson's History of Art.

Midori Yoshimoto is Associate Professor of Art History at New Jersey City University, USA, specializing in post-1945 Japanese art and its diaspora and women artists, and author of Into Performance: Japanese Women Artists in New York (2005).