WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Wednesday, Oct. 22, the Clark Art Institute hosts a book talk with author Bonnie Tsui. 

 

Tsui discusses her 2025 book "On Muscle," in which she brings her blend of science, culture, immersive reporting, and personal narrative to examine not just what muscles are but what they mean to us. The free event takes place in the Clark’s Manton Research Center auditorium at 6 p.m.

 

In "On Muscle," Tsui traces how muscles have defined beauty—and how they have distorted it—through the ages, and how they play an essential role in our physical and mental health. Woven throughout are Tsui’s own drawings and stories of her childhood with her Chinese immigrant artist dad—a black belt in karate—who schooled her from a young age in a quirky, in-house Muscle Academy. "On Muscle" shows us the poetry in the physical and the surprising ways muscle can reveal what we’re capable of.

 

Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. Copies of "On Muscle" will be available for sale at the event. A book signing follows the talk.