Photographic works and video documentation of performances by the French artist Orlan are on view in the Mabel Smith Douglass Library Galleries, Douglass College Campus-Rutgers/New Brunswick from March 8 through April 13.

The artist will give a free, public presentation at the Douglass Library on Wednesday, March 21, beginning at 4:30 pm. The title of her talk is "This is My Body, This is My Software."

Orlan is internationally known for her 1990s transformative performances that question standards of beauty imposed on women, such as those idealized in iconic art historical depictions of Venus, Psyche and the Mona Lisa. More recent work on view also in the galleries renders her continuing investigation of transfiguration through photographic self-portraits, Self-Hybridizations, inspired by pre-Columbian, African and Native American cultures. This exhibition is a rare chance to see an overview of her oeuvre.

Orlan's work can also currently be seen in two New York-metropolitan area group shows: at the Robeson Gallery, Rutgers/Newark campus in Imago: The Drama of Self-Portraiture in Recent Photography and at Manhattan's Chelsea Museum's Dangerous Beauty exhibition. She is a visiting scholar at The Getty Research Center in Los Angeles during the 2006-2007 academic year.

The exhibition and lecture have been organized for the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series by Professor Emeritus Judith K. Brodsky and Dr. Ferris Olin, Co-Directors of the Institute for Women and Art at Rutgers. The Institute administers the series in collaboration with the Rutgers University Libraries. Co-sponsors of these events are the Art History Department, Associate Alumnae of Douglass College, Brodsky Center at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Institute for Women and Art, Institute for Research on Women, Institute for Women's Leadership, Margery Somers Foster Center of the Rutgers University Libraries, Women's and Gender Studies Department, all at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick. The Feminist Art Project, a collaborative national initiative celebrating the Feminist Art Movement and the aesthetic, intellectual and political impact of women on the visual arts, art history, and art practice, past and present, is also a sponsor.

The galleries are open: Monday through Thursday, 8 am-11 pm; Friday, 8 am-9 pm Saturday, 10 am - 6 pm; Sunday, 12 noon - 11 pm; Spring Break (March 10-17): Monday through Friday, 8 am-5pm; Saturday, closed.

For more information on this exhibition or the public program, please contact exhibition curator Ferris Olin at 732/932-9407, ext. 26 or by email at: olin@rci.rutgers.edu.