Judy Chicago, a visionary who has always had her eyes on the future, played a .pivotal role in launching the Feminist Art movement in the 1970s, and with it a dialog that changed the landscape of the art world. Today Chicago’s voice is as strong as ever, her oeuvre a continuum with sustained and growing impact. Speaking here with Lucy Lippard, Chicago takes account of and puts in perspective the setbacks of the intervening "postfeminist" decades, with their proliferation of identity politics and their privileging of theory over practice. She leads us to see that not only are those early feminist questions and challenges more relevant than ever, they still direct the evolving discourse.

A pioneer of the Feminist Art movement, Judy Chicago is one of the most influential creators of our time-her impact extending both throughout and beyond the art community. Her monumental installation The Dinner Party has become an icon of the twentieth century, while her two autobiographies, Through the Flower and Beyond the Flower, have been translated into three languages and sold around the world.

Spanning forty years, this book provides an overview of Chicago’s output to date: rarely reproduced art from her prefeminist early years; her revolutionary early feminist work; The Dinner Party years; the Birth Project years; the Powerplay series; the Holocaust Project; as well as her autobiographical and recent art. Some of the work is being shown for the first time. Judy Chicago features an introduction by art historian Edward Lucie-Smith, an extensive interview with Chicago by renowned feminist art critic and historian Lucy R. Lippard, and a biographical text by curator and educator Viki D. Thompson Wylder. Judy Chicago showcases more than lOO full-color illustrations honoring the artwork of one of America’s celebrated artistic trailblazers.

Judy Chicago is published in conjunction with an exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., from October 11, 2002, to January 5, 2003, and announces the plans for the exhibition and permanent housing of The Dinner Party.

FOREWORD

ELIZABETH A. SACKLER 

JUDY CHICAGO: A MORAL VISION

EDWARD LUCIE-SMITH 

ENTERING THE CULTURE: JUDY CHICAGO TALKING WITH LUCY LIPPARD 

1 EARLY CALIFORNIA YEARS: 1964-1971 

2 BREAKTHROUGH YEARS: 1972-1975

3 THE DINNER PARTY YEARS: 1974-1979 

4 THE BIRTH PROJECT YEARS: 1980-1985 

5 THE POWERPLAY SERIES: 1983-1987 

6 THE HOLOCAUST PROJECT YEARS: 1985-1993 

7 THE END OF THE CENTURY: 1993-2000 

JUDY CHICAGO: THE COURAGE OF SINGULAR CONVICTION

VIKI D. THOMPSON WYLDER 

COMPLETE BIBLIOGRAPHY 

CATALOG 

INDEX