Hot Flashes, Volume 2 + 3 Double Issue

Portfolio/SeriesGuerrilla Girls Portfolio Compleat 1985-2012

Date1994

Artist Guerrilla Girls (American, founded 1985)

CultureAmerican

MediumNewsletter, 8 pages

DimensionsOpen: 15 x 11 1/2 in. (38.1 x 29.2 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, gift of Mrs. Frederick Ferris Thompson, by exchange

On View

Not on view

Classification(s)

InscribedOn mailing panel, by unknown hand, lower right in pencil: Guerilla Girls

Vassar Exhibitions

Chronostasia: Select Acquisitions 2020–2025

American Impressions: Nation in Prints

Label TextHot Flashes marks a pivotal expansion in Guerrilla Girls’ advocacy against art world discrimination. Founded in 1985 to combat oppression in galleries and museums, the anonymous collective had evolved from street poster campaigns into comprehensive media interventions by 1994. This double issue interrogates representation (or lack thereof) in museums joining acerbic design and systemic institutional analysis. The collective’s mastery of public service announcement aesthetics reaches full potency here: stark typography delivers statistics while editorial content exposes bias at major cultural institutions. Inside pages chronicle their methodology through museum report cards, satirical “glossary of terminology,” and mock advertisements targeting institutional hypocrisy. Circulated to reach classrooms, museums, and mailboxes, this newsletter format expanded their institutional critique of museum leadership, exhibition patterns, and acquisition practices by weaponizing transparency through institutions’ own metrics.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu