Taking issue with the centuries old depictions of women as good or bad, saintly or sinful, some of these essays examine women within the traditional dichotomies whilst others demonstrate the range of possibilities available to women in northern European society.

A collection of original essays, Saints, Sinners and Sisters showcases the diverse questions and methodologies currently being asked by gender scholars dealing with French, German, and Netherlandish art from the medieval and early modern periods. Saints, Sinners and Sisters begins by asking new questions of women who were positive exempla within their societies as well as those whose sexuality society sought to denounce and control. The book's second section moves beyond the reclamation of "lost" female artists and the customary good-bad dichotomy by which medieval and early modern women have been categorized. Here the definitions of women's responsibilities are expanded and realigned historically. Saints, Sinners and Sisters argues that the nuances surrounding gender can only be understood when the social and cultural context is broadened, revealing how art responded to the full range of women's roles, be they spinner or sorceress, weaver or wife.

Saints, Sinners and Sisters received an Honorable Mention by the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women for a collaborative project published in 2003 'This is an important collection of essays that addresses the diverse roles that women played in the visual culture of northern Europe during the medieval and early modern eras... the sensitivity of each author to issues of historiography and methodology makes this collection a particularly rewarding read and a rich source for study in seminars on gender and northern European art.' Jean C. Wilson, Renaissance Quarterly 'This anthology fills a major lacuna in the study of Northern European art... the clearly written and well illustrated articles should be accessible - indeed inspiring - to most intelligent undergraduates.' HNA Newsletter 'The level of scolarship... is uniformly high.' CAA Reviews, November 2005 'The collection challenges art historians to build upon the precedent-setting feminist and gender studies... As it reaches a wider audience, the volume goes a long way towards incorporating the issues of gender, sex, and class into broader textbook knowledge.' Sixteenth Century Journal