The creation, from the suite Five images from the Birth Project

Judy Chicago is an influential feminist, author, educator and artist. She was a key figure of the 1970s feminist art movement and, alongside Miriam Schapiro, initiated the first feminist art program at California State University as well as 'Womanhouse', an installation and performance space for female-centred art.

From 1980 to 1985 Chicago collaborated with 150 needleworkers across America and around the world to produce 'The birth project', a series of textiles and tapestries that celebrate women and the process of birth and creation. She also worked with a screenprint workshop to make a suite of five prints that explore some of the themes of the project. Chicago describes 'The creation' as ’an evolutionary chronical [sic] which shows life emerging from a female being, then the slow development of plant and animal life, the development of the human species presented in the image of a woman and her children and then, the advent of male dominance’