Judy Chicago

01Each of the 999 place settings features a unique ceramic plate with vulvic imagery specific to that woman's historical period.
02Congress voted in 1991 to block 'The Dinner Party' from entering the University of the District of Columbia after public outcry over the imagery.
03The piece required over 400 volunteers working across five years; Chicago documented labor hours as a feminist statement about uncredited work.

01Gerda Wegener's paintings of 'Lili' were exhibited and celebrated in Paris art circles in the 1920s before Einar's transition.
02Einar underwent at least four surgeries in Dresden and Berlin between 1930 and 1931 — among the earliest such procedures on record.
03The Danish government annulled Einar and Gerda's marriage in 1930, one of the first such legal acts related to gender transition in Europe.

Judy Chicago spent five years directing hundreds of volunteers to embroider 999 vulvic ceramic place settings for historical women. 'The Dinner Party' debuted in 1979; Congress blocked it from the Smithsonian.