The Dinner Party -1994- [updated] Guide

Whereas Chicago laid places for Georgia O’Keeffe and Susan B. Anthony, laid places for Monica’s overbearing mother, Ross’s cynical father, and a group of friends who would rather be anywhere else. Chicago’s table is about heritage and legacy. The Friends table is about anxiety and hormones.

One guest asks the hostess how she knew the snake was there. She replies, "I didn't know. But I saw it crawling across the floor a moment ago." The Dinner Party -1994-

For a generation of students and museum-goers in the 90s, the installation was a revelation. It exposed the glaring omissions in standard history textbooks. The names—Sappho, Hildegard of Bingen, Artemisia Gentileschi—were revelations to many. The work functioned not just as art, but as a corrective archive, forcing the viewer to confront the erasure of female achievement. Whereas Chicago laid places for Georgia O’Keeffe and