ROANOKE, VA.- Susan King is known both for her writing and her skillful bookmaking. She began making books after she moved to Southern California in the 1970s to be part of the experimental Feminist Studio Workshop. She went on to become the studio director of the Women’s Graphic Center at the Woman’s Building, working closely with Judy Chicago and other pioneer feminist artists. She has since returned to her southern roots, and much of her work is influenced by southern oral tradition and history, in addition to writing about place. King continues to create books and ephemera in her home studio in Lexington, Kentucky.

King received a BA in ceramics from the University of Kentucky and an MFA from the University of New Mexico. She taught one of the first Women and Art courses in the United States at the University of New Mexico in 1973, as well as letterpress printing at the Otis College of Art and Design. King continues to lecture, teach workshops, and complete artist residencies at art centers and universities throughout the United States.

Susan King has received awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Grant in collaboration with Shelia Levrant de Bretteville and Bettye Saar; book production grants from the Women’s Studio Workshop, the Visual Studies Workshop, and Nexus Press; and a book fellowship from the National Museum of Women in the Arts. King’s work is in major collections including the Harvard University Library, Cambridge; The Getty Center Research Institute Library, Bel Air; the Otis Collge of Art and Design Library, Los Angeles; the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; the Museum of Modern Art Library, New York; and the Victoria and Albert Museum Library, London.

Susan King: Chronicles of a Southern Feminist is on display in the Ballator-Thompson Gallery of the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University from Thursday, January 4, 2018, through Sunday, April 8, 2018.

The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University is an ADA accessible facility. Admission to the museum is always free and open to the public.