Judy Chicago, An American Vision
Judy Chicago (1939-) is something of a celebrity--she was voted 1973's "Woman of the Year" by Mademoiselle--and she has written two popular autobiographies documenting her artistic consciousness-raising. Many still remember her California installation piece, the accompanying performance Womanhouse (1972), and especially the notorious The Dinner Party (1979). She has been working industriously for these many years, producing several large-scale multimedia pieces that have not garnered such broad attention. Most of her artworks are "projects," calling on her organizational skills to persuade many people with no fine arts background to carry out her vision. The prolific Lucie-Smith, who has lately coauthored a book with Chicago (Women and Art: Contested Territory, LJ 9/1/99), presents many of these lesser-known pieces as well as the blockbusters and does a good job of offering a contemporary view of the artist. This handsome monograph, containing 275 illustrations, 240 in color, is recommended as an interesting, fact-filled tome for most serious collections and large public collections.-Mary Hamel-Schwulst, Towson Univ., MDCopyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an alternateHardcoveredition.