Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist

"By excluding the work of women artists from history, men not only maintain control of women, but also of the world." Judy Chicago, original V-Warrior and PoMo high priestress, turned that tide. Dogmatic, didactic, hyperliteral and hypercritical, her influence (even before The Dinner Party) cannot be underestimated. This is 'back in the day' when art had a 'message,' but, all that, Chicago nevertheless ushered in today's chaos, and yesterday's identity politics, with her clever use of 'fem' (low) art elements and stubborn insistence on remembering all founding sisters. Duchamp met his match - and, bringing high icongraphy to 'women's lib,' the 1980s were born.

What a wonderful book this is; so inspired, so inspiring. Judy Chicago is simply brilliant. She has challenged patriarchal tyranny so courageously and insightfully that you can read this book again and again with acute pleasure.

Is there a more gifted artist in the world than Judy Chicago? While men continue to pretend that women artists do not even exist, Chicago has fought all the male paradigms and WON! Her gut-wrenchingly honest writing will inspire a lot of fear among males who are trying to keep women from showing their work, but every once in a while I feel that women have nothing to worry about as far as that goes: because artists like Judy Chicago continue to astonish all with her brilliance!

It seems that while Women continue to produce some of the most important art work of our time, there are many men in the art world and in criticism who wish to pretend that the most courageous Women's voices are not heard. I salute Judy Chicago for combatting what these men have perpetrated upon us as artists and as Women. She is so courageous, so forthright, never one to shy away from speaking the truth at all times even as she questions 'truth'. Her experiences with her Black lover are also fascinating, and it seems that now that Women and African Americans are joining to fight patriarchal assumptions/proscriptions, we are better able to appreciate the efforts of Judy Chicago to proclaim the relations of artistic struggle and the struggle of civil rights. A WONDERFUL artist.

This is a terrific book that demonstrates that women are able to persevere with their art even though males are trying to stop us. It seems that the white male patriarchal art world will continue to try to silence us, BUT WE WILL BE HEARD! I salute all my sisters in their struggle to produce art that, while disturbing white males, will prove that it is women who are making the most significant art in the world today. Judy Chicago has won again!