1st Edition

Food, Feminism, and Women’s Art in 1970s Southern California

By Emily Elizabeth Goodman Copyright 2022
    192 Pages 21 Color & 14 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    192 Pages 21 Color & 14 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book explores how feminist artists continued to engage with kitchen culture and food practices in their work as women’s art moved from the margins to the mainstream.

    In particular, this book examines the use of food in the art practices of six women artists and collectives working in Southern California—a hotbed of feminist art in the 1970s—in conjunction with the Women’s Art Movement and broader feminist groups during the era of the Second Wave. Focused around particular articulations of food in culture, this book considers how feminist artists engage with issues of gender, labor, class, consumption, (re)production, domesticity, and sexuality in order to advocate for equality and social change.

    The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, food studies, and gender and women’s studies.

    Introduction Part 1: Labor 1. Cooking: Suzanne Lacy’s Learn Where the Meat Comes From 2. Serving: The Waitresses’ Ready to Order? 3. Nursing: Womanhouse and The Nurturant Kitchen Part 2: Consumption 4. Feeding: Feminist Art Workers’ Heaven or Hell? 5. Eating: Martha Rosler’s Losing: A Conversation with the Parents 6. Being Eaten: Barbara T. Smith’s Ritual Meal Conclusion

    Biography

    Emily Elizabeth Goodman is Assistant Professor of Art History at Transylvania University.