Bernès Marouteau & Cie

Through original essays, catalogue entries on Nancy Elizabeth Prophet’s major works, and an illustrated chronology of her remarkable life, this book reframes Prophet’s powerful work and legacy. Contributors trace the artist’s transatlantic career, from Parisian ateliers to Spelman College, and consider topics such as the art institutions Prophet navigated, the stylistic connections between her figurative sculpture and the work of her modernist contemporaries, her Afro-Indigenous heritage, and how she resisted predetermined conceptions of her cultural identity. Continuing to inspire a new generation of artists and viewers today, Prophet offers a model of fearless devotion to her work.

Edited by Sarah Ganz Blythe, Dominic Molon, and Kajette Solomon, with contributions by Amalia K. Amaki, Simone Leigh, Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, Lorén M. Spears, and others. 

$45, hardcover, 184 pages. Copublished 2024 by Yale University Press and the RISD Museum. Proceeds from RISD Museum publications support the work of the museum.