Nava Atlas

Nava Atlas got her B.F.A. from the University of Michigan in 1977 and her M.A. in Art Studio in 2007 from the State University of New York, New Paltz.

Atlas makes artists' books, often experimenting with the physical form and incorporating found materials. They are typically produced as limited editions. A number of her works explore women's experience and the constraints of traditional gender roles; among these are The Literary Ladies' Guide to the Writing Life (2011), Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife (2009), Sluts & Studs (2008), Tomcats & Trollops (2008), (Mis)labeling Hillary (2008), Hand Jobs (2008), and Any Man Gets Tired of Toast All the Time (2007). Postal Angst (2012) is an album of imaginary postage stamps. She also makes unique altered books — an example is Love and Marriage (2008), a 1950s comic book in which all the dialogue has been replaced with next text by Atlas — and installations that feature text.

Her work has been exhibited widely across the United States and abroad, including at the Brooklyn Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Victoria and Albert Museum, Wichita Art Museum, and many other institutions. Her work is held in numerous public collections, and an archive of her papers is housed in the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture at Duke University.

Atlas, who has been vegetarian for many years, also writes and illustrates vegetarian and vegan cookbooks. Her first cookbook, Vegetariana, came out in 1984. Other titles include Plant Power (2014), Wild About Greens (2012), Vegan Holiday Kitchen (2011), and The Vegetarian Family Cookbook (2004). VegKitchen is her blog for writing about vegetarian cooking and cookbooks.