DOES THE ART OF Nancy Spero put one in mind, above all, of books? This is the question raised by “Nancy Spero: Dissidances,” a retrospective of the fifty-plus years of the artist’s career jointly organized by the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid (where it is currently on view). Assembling an impressive quantity of Spero’s different projects, and drawing on their “allusions . . . to literary artifacts” such as codices, papyri, and manuscripts, curators Manuel J. Borja-Villel and Rosario Peiró propose to “re-evaluate [Spero’s] work

In 1999, “Egolactante”—a strange character with an elegant profile despite its large head—was gestated in the imagination of Javier Peñafiel. In the ten years that have ensued, it has barely changed. Restless in appearance, Egolactante is, in fact, chronically nervous. Though one might think this is due to some emotional or political vulnerability, it is really because Egolactante has decided to live with the fiction that has been installed in its mind. The sum of these powerful components—spastic body and intellectual prowess—make Egolactante into an incarnation of the new Homo aestheticus.