There had never been art like the art produced by women artists in the 1970sandmdash;and there has never been a book with the ambition and scope of this one about that groundbreaking era. WACK! documents and illustrates the impact of the feminist revolution on art made between 1965 and 1980, featuring pioneering and influential works by artists who came of age during that periodandmdash;Chantal Akerman, Lynda Benglis, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Valie Export, Mary Heilmann, Sanja Ivekoviand#269;, Ana Mendieta, Annette Messager, and othersandmdash;as well as important works made in those years by artists whose whose careers were already well established, including Louise Bourgeois, Judy Chicago, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Lucy Lippard, Alice Neel, and Yoko Ono.

The art surveyed in WACK! includes work by more than 120 artists, in all mediaandmdash;from painting and sculpture to photography, film, installation, and videoandmdash;arranged not by chronology but by theme: Abstraction, andquot;Autophotography,andquot; Body as Medium, Family Stories, Gender Performance, Knowledge as Power, Making Art History, and others. WACK!, which accompanies the first international museum exhibition to showcase feminist art from this revolutionary era, contains more than 400 color images. Highlights include the figurative paintings of Joan Semmel; the performance and film collaborations of Sally Potter and Rose English; the untitled film stills of Cindy Sherman; and the large-scale, craft-based sculptures of Magdalena Abakanowicz.

Written entries on each artist offer key biographical and descriptive information and accompanying essays by leading critics, art historians, and scholars offer new perspectives on feminist art practice. The topicsandmdash;including the relationship between American and European feminism, feminism and New York abstraction, and mapping a global feminismandmdash;provide a broad social context for the artworks themselves. WACK! is both a definitive visual record and a long-awaited history of one of the most important artistic movements of the twentieth century.

Essays by:
Cornelia Butler, Judith Russi Kirshner, Catherine Lord, Marsha Meskimmon, Richard Meyer, Helen Molesworth, Peggy Phelan, Nelly Richard, Valerie Smith, Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Jenni Sorkin

Artists include:
Marina Abramoviand#269;, Chantal Akerman, Lynda Benglis, Dara Birnbaum, Louise Bourgeois, Judy Chicago, Lygia Clark, Jay DeFeo, Mary Beth Edelson, Valie Export, Barbara Hammer, Susan Hiller, Joan Jonas, Mary Kelly, Maria Lassnig, Linda Montano, Alice Neel, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine Oandrsquo;Grady, Pauline Oliveros, Yoko Ono, Orlan, Howardena Pindell, Yvonne Rainer, Faith Ringgold, Ketty La Rocca, Ulrike Rosenbach, Martha Rosler, Betye Saar, Miriam Schapiro, Carolee Schneemann, Cindy Sherman, and Hannah Wilke.

andquot;This is a cultural excavation project: Much of the work here hasn't been seen in decades. But it's also an argument for the revision of recent art history.andquot;
andmdash; Robert L. Pincus, San Diego Union-Tribute

Groundbreaking art from a revolutionary era, featuring work by more than 120 international artists, from Louise Bourgeois and Yoko Ono to Martha Rosler, Marina Abramoviand#269;, and Cindy Sherman.

Cornelia Butler is Ahmanson Curatorial Fellow at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and The Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.Lisa Gabrielle Mark is Director of Publications at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.