The works presented--from the prehistoric Venus of Willendorf to Michelangelo's Piet, to paintings by such artists as Picasso and lisabeth Vige-Lebrun, to Hannah Wilke's searing self-portraits of her cancer-ridden body, to photographic records of visceral performance pieces by Carolee Schneeman--are, by turn, beautiful, subtle, explicit, confrontational, and sometimes shocking.These images provoke a wide-ranging, spirited dialogue between the authors as they discuss the various ways women have been portrayed-as goddess, mother, victim, martyr, whore, seductress, and more-resulting in a book full of startling visual illumination that combines a vivid discourse on the female image with a triumphant celebration of the feminine. 200 color illustrations.