This exhibit is the first to address the more than 25 collaborative performance rituals and community based workshops produced by Mary Beth Edelson starting as early as 1969. These pioneering participatory works were presented at The Corcoran Gallery, A.I.R. Gallery, Albright- Knox Gallery, The Malmo KonstMuseum, Sweden, and Franklin Furnace, as well as at universities in the United States and abroad. In planning and presenting these programs Edelson collaborated with organizations such as A.I.R Gallery, the utopian community of New Harmony, Indiana, and artists from The Women's Building in Los Angeles. The collaborations will be represented by drawings, a projection of original slides, a chronology of photo documentation as well as a study area with scriptbooks, texts by and about the artist, and other documents. Collaborative will also include two Story Gathering Boxes, works which Edelson has created since 1972 and constitute an archive of participants’ personal thoughts. The box titled Gender Parity asks the questions: What did your mother teach you about women? and What did your mother teach you about men?. Participants may view previous handwritten responses as well as respond to new questions posed by the artist.

Mary Beth Edelson’s work has been featured in over 90 books and is widely reviewed in the United States and abroad. Recent museum exhibitions include Me. Myself. Naked., Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany; Female Power, Museum Voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem, Netherlands; NYC 1993, New Museum, New York; Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography, MoMA, New York; WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, which was curated by MoMA’s Connie Butler and traveled to LA MOCA, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Vancouver Museum, and PS1, New York and Picturing the Modern Amazon, New Museum, New York. The artist has also exhibited internationally at the Malmo Konstmuseum in Sweden, where she had a retrospective of her work; Mumok Museum, Vienna; Migros Museum, Zurich; Shedhalle, Zurich; Lofoten International Art Festival, Norway; and the Tate, London. In addition to international recognition Edelson has founded numerous enterprises including the seminal Conference for Women in the Visual Arts (CWVA) held at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C. in 1972 and the follow- up seminar at the Smithsonian, Washington, D.C. in 1973. She is a founder of Heresies Magazine and WAC (Women’s Action Coalition). In 1994 Edelson produced Combat Zone: Campaign Hq. Against Domestic Violence, sponsored by Creative Time. Her work is in the collections of major museums including: the Guggenheim, NY, NY; MoMA, NY, NY; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and the Walker Art Center, MN and Malmo Konstmuseum, Sweden. This is Edelson’s second solo exhibition at Accola Griefen Gallery.