Stymied by the classic H.W. Janson History of Art , the widely used textbook that discusses not a single woman artist, Schapiro began to study up on her lost, fine-art foremothers. She tracked down the rare book that reproduced images by women painters, and called up scholars to ferret out names of women she'd never heard of before. We're talking 1970. There was no literature on women artists. Just as Schapiro collaborated with the anonymous doily makers of yore, she combined photocopied reproductions of the paintings with honorary borders she painted herself.
Women are good, they're noble.
Words that have never been used about women before. Still, it's not easy being the one to collaborate backward and forward in time, to matchmake media and genres. Tucson Weekly . Info Booth .