Through archival research, this monographic publication focuses on Ukeles's work ballets-a series of seven grand-scale collaborative performances involving workers, trucks, barges, and hundreds of tons of recyclables and steel-which took place between 1983 and 2012 in New York, Pittsburgh, Givors, Rotterdam, and Tokamachi. Over the past four decades, Ukeles has pioneered how we perceive and ultimately engage in maintenance activities. The work ballets derive from her engagement in civic operations in order to reveal how they work though monumental coordination and cooperation. Mierle Laderman Ukeles: Seven Work Ballets is the first monograph on Ukeles's seminal practice, and is as much an artist's book as an art-historical publication.

Paperback

208 Pages