Born in the Bronx, and raised amidst Yiddish endearments, visual artist, essayist, and book designer, Judith Margolis, draws on the spiritual when confronting the political. While studying Art and Psychology at Cooper Union in New York, Lone Mountain College in San Francisco (BA) and University of Southern California (MFA), she developed a radical educational philosophy of de-schooling society, and an unwavering commitment to counter-cultural social activism.

Despite the inconvenience, she explores tensions between feminism and religious tradition, all the while maintaining an extreme engagement with and ambivalence about, especially, but not exclusively Judaism. An archive of much of her work can be viewed at www.judithmargolis.com. Videos of ongoing projects can be viewed here.

Margolis founded Bright Idea Books, in 1992, for which she designs and publishes limited-edition artist books. Her books have been acquired by The New York Public Library; Yale; U. of Washington; UCLA; Arthur Jaffe Artists Book Museum; U. of Michigan and numerous other public and private collections.

Margolis has exhibited her work and been awarded artist residencies in United States, Russia, China, Italy, Canada, Vienna and Israel.

Her art and writing have been published by Penn State Press; Oxford University Press; Beacon Publishers, Omnidawn Publishing, Coward McCann and Geoghegan, Shambala Press, Parabola, Books; Jewish Lights; Architectural World, and others.

She is the art editor of NASHIM, a Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies and Gender Issues / U. of Indiana Press (2000-present), and was a contributing editor of ARTweek Magazine/ Palo Alto, CA (1986-1992).