Judy Chicago's masterpiece "The Dinner Party" is a monumental work of art conceived as a symbolic history of women in Western civilization. Strategically countering the traditional erasure of women's achievements, this epic installation honours 1038 iconic, mythical, archetypal and historical women. This, the most definitive book to be published on Chicago's masterwork, reveals more fully than ever before the art and the artist's expanded research into the rich history embodied in the installation. In lively contextualizing sections, Chicago discusses the creative genesis of "The Dinner Party", the technical processes involved, and the work's early - often hostile - reception by the art world, and its subsequent preservation and permanent exhibition. "The Dinner Party" is profusely illustrated throughout with documentary images and new photography that displays the work in detail making this the ultimate source on an iconic work that is taught in art history and women's studies courses around the world.