The press release read "If you're still hungry after The Dinner Party, try Maria Manhattan's The Box Lunch, a major art event honoring 39 women of dubious distinction." And indeed in both San Francisco and New York City in 1980, thousands flocked to this outrageous parody of Judy Chicago's groundbreaking, The Dinner Party.

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Manhattan offered a feminist alternative to Chicago in a large multi media exhibition suggesting a wider examination of womens' influences. Her POV was that we're all in it together. Our role models have included Cinderella as well as Susan B. Anthony.

 

The honorees are largely drawn from pop culture. At the table were Lucy Ricardo, Julia Child, Josephine Baker, Betty Crocker, Fannie Farmer, Mrs. Betty Graham (inventor of Liquid Paper) and so many more.

 

Maria Manhattan's lecture and update of this show for Women’s History Month at the Hudson Area Library in March, 2019 was a stunning success thanks to her collaboration with the girls of Perfect 10 in Hudson, NY, who took The Box Lunch into the 21st Century.