Accidental Records includes new paintings and drawings by Ellen Gallagher (born 1965) that continue her exploration of the complex histories of the Black Atlantic and the afterlives of the Middle Passage. Widely associated with a resurgence in this diasporic critical space, Gallagher has developed her own genre of history painting which makes us question our geographies. The slowly layered surfaces of her work become a kind of reckoning, the way sailors mark their locations at sea, determined to return. Alongside views of Gallagher's artworks and portraits of the artist working in her studio, texts are included by Adrienne Edwards, curator at Performa and the Walker Art Center, and Philip Hoare, a writer whose books include Leviathan or, The Whale and The Sea Inside. The book accompanies Gallagher's solo show at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles.