If traditional, mainstream literature is the equivalent of a 19th century still-life, literature as a contemporary art form would be the equivalent of the art video or the sculpture that uses genetically-engineered cells as its medium. That is, contemporary art-lit can be thought of as a kind of literature that is as invested in its own medium or materials as it is engaged with the world: a literature that is more interested in using form, like its counterparts in music and the visual arts, to work through ideas rather than to create a transparent, illusionistic window on the world. (&now website)