Books in the October Files series

A critical primer on artist Richard Serra's work.

When Mary Kelly's best-known work, Post-Partum Document (1973-1979), was shown at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London in 1977, it caused a sensation¿an unexpected response to an intellectually demanding and aesthetically restrained installation of conceptual art. The reception signaled cultural resistance to the themes of the work: feminism and the cultural mythologizing of motherhood. This volume of essays and interviews begins with this foundational work, offering an early statement by the artist, a subsequent interview, and an essay situating the work within a broader feminist discourse that includes Martha Rosler and Judy Chicago. The collection examines such themes in Kelly's work as labor, war trauma, and the politics of care, while emphasizing the artist's sustained engagement with multiple feminisms, multiple histories of feminism, and multiple generations of feminists.