This handsome 5-DVD box set is accompanied by a booklet of current essays by young writers (Joshua Thorson and Alissa Firth-Eagland) appraising the performance and narrative work of Steele in the early part of her career. By way of introduction, the booklet includes a 2013 recorded conversation between Steele and the legendary Martha Rosler, offering a glimpse at why the body was central in so much video art from this era. This compilation contains 16 titles – some with multiple parts – made between 1972 and 1984. It includes the acknowledged “classics” of video art Birthday Suit—with scars and defects, a work that has been the object of dozens of homage works created by younger artists and one that signaled Steele’s early consideration of feminism as a founding principle for her work as an artist, as well as The Ballad of Dan Peoples and A Very Personal Story, both early innovative works of narrative recovery. The compilation also includes a number of lesser known works from Steele’s early oeuvre, including a single channel version of the rarely seen 3-channel installation Internal Pornography and the only film work included, This is not a home movie (1984), a Super-8 work commissioned to investigate women’s erotic film language.

Over 450 minutes of early Feminist fun!

DVD Launch

Wednesday, June 19, 2013, 5:00 to 7:00 pm
at Vtape, 401 Richmond Street West, Suite 452 Toronto

Available for institutional purchase, for use in classrooms and libraries.