Selected Judy Chicago Quotations
• Because we are denied knowledge of our history, we are deprived of standing upon each other's shoulders and building upon each other's hard earned accomplishments. Instead we are condemned to repeat what others have done before us and thus we continually reinvent the wheel. The goal of The Dinner Party is to break this cycle.
• I believe in art that is connected to real human feeling, that extends itself beyond the limits of the art world to embrace all people who are striving for alternatives in an increasingly dehumanized world. I am trying to make art that relates to the deepest and most mythic concerns of human kind and I believe that, at this moment of history, feminism is humanism.
• About The Birth Project: These values were oppositional in that they challenged many prevailing ideas as to what art was to be about (female rather than male experience), how it was to be made (in an empowering, co-operative method rather than a competitive, individualistic mode) and what materials were to be employed in creating it (any that seemed appropriate, irrespective of what socially constructed gender associations a particular media might be perceived to have).
• About The Holocaust Project: A lot of survivors committed suicide. Then you must make a choice--are you going to succumb to the darkness or choose life? It's a Jewish mandate to choose life.
• You shouldn't have to justify your work.
• I began to wonder about the ethical distinction between processing pigs and doing the same thing to people defined as pigs. Many would argue that moral considerations do not have to be extended to animals, but this is just what the Nazis said about the Jews.
• Andrea Neal, editorial writer (October 14, 1999): Judy Chicago is obviously more exhibitionist than artist. And that raises a question: is this what a great public university should support?
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About These Quotes
Quote collection assembled by Jone Johnson Lewis. Each quotation page in this collection and the entire collection © Jone Johnson Lewis 1997-2009. This is an informal collection assembled over many years. I regret that I am not be able to provide the original source if it is not listed with the quote.
Citation information:
Jone Johnson Lewis. "Judy Chicago Quotes." About Women's History. URL: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/judy_chicago.htm . Date accessed: (today). (More on how to cite online sources including this page)

