Mierle Laderman Ukeles

The first comprehensive monograph devoted to Mierle Laderman Ukeles and her groundbreaking participatory art practice. The work of Mierle Laderman Ukeles brilliantly bridges feminism, environmentalism, and participatory art practice. Whether it’s her groundbreaking Manifesto for Maintenance Art 1969!, which decries the separation, especially for women, between art on the one hand and caring for family, city, and planet on the other; or The Social Mirror, in which she covered a New York City Department of Sanitation truck entirely in mirrored glass—Ukeles's fascinating body of work includes public art installations, exhibitions, and performances around the world, frequently created in collaboration with sanitation and municipal workers, museum visitors, and the public. This first comprehensive book on the influential artist explores her legendary tenure as artist-in-residence at New York City’s Department of Sanitation, which has paved the way for similar "embedded artists" in government and community organizations. Essays, interviews, and striking illustrations offer important perspectives on an artist who has transformed our ideas about the feminist, urban, ecological, and resilient aspects of artistic experience."This 256-page catalogue of her feminist output- from washing the sidewalks in front of a gallery in 1974 to becoming the first artist-in-residence at the City of New York Department of Sanitation (DSNY) in 1977, to several more decades of dealing with trash –features insightful essays by Larissa Harris, Lucy R. Lippard, and Patricia C. Phillips. But what makes the volume sparkle are Tom Finkelpearl’s interviews with four DSNY commissioners who worked with Ukeles, which together provide a minihistory of the city."

-Bookforum
"Ms. Phillips’s extensive catalog essay is an invaluable addition: Facts, style, wisdom, they’re all there."

—The New York Times
"As the New York City Department of Sanitation’s official artist-in-residence, Mierle Laderman Ukeles has challenged perceptions of labor and the city’s workers for over 30 years . . . In subversive performances, unusual installations, and mixed-media works (like trash-dump sculptures), Ukeles often explores cultural status and female identity."

—New York Magazine, The CutPatricia C. Phillips is an independent writer and curator.