THE SHORT VERSION
Nava Atlas has published some twenty trade books that span the culinary and visually driven nonfiction genres. She’s the creator and editor of LiteraryLadiesGuide.com, a platform that explores and archives women’s classic literature with a dedicated following and millions of views logged. She’s also well known for groundbreaking vegan cookbooks. Find out more about her life in the plant-based space at TheVeganAtlas.com.
Nava is also a text-based artist whose limited edition artist’s books are represented in dozens of university special collections and the libraries of museums, including The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Art, among others. A permanent archive of her papers is housed at the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture at Duke University.
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THE LONGER VERSION
My work has followed parallel paths in the fine arts and publishing fields. With the idea of the book often central to my various practices, I can explore multiple paths from each concept—sculptural artist’s books can be taken off the page to become mixed media constructions or installations; limited editions can be expanded into conventionally published books.
Incorporating elements of my own writing as well as appropriated text with found images and materials, my work explores a variety of social issues including women’s roles, ingrained cultural biases, animal advocacy, and the personal becoming political.
My work has been shown nationally in museums, galleries, and alternative art spaces, including: Wichita Art Museum, Suffolk Museum (VA), ARC Gallery (Chicago), Purdue University, Duke University, Everson Museum (Syracuse, NY) Pyramid Atlantic Art Center (Silver Spring, MD), and many others. My work is represented in public collections, including the Nasher Museum, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (SUNY New Paltz), Weatherspoon Art Museum (NC), Wichita Art Museum, and others.
My artist’s books are housed in dozens collections of artists books, including those at MOMA’s library (NY), National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, DC), Yale University, The Library of Congress Rare Book Collection, The National Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Duke University, Skidmore College, and many others. See a more complete listing of exhibits and collections in my CV.
A lifelong avid reader and aficionado of women’s history, I’ve created one of the most comprehensive web archives dedicated to women’s classic literature, Literary Ladies Guide, an outgrowth of my trade book, Literary Ladies’ Guide to the Writing Life.
I’m also known as the author of numerous vegetarian and vegan cookbooks, the most recent which are listed on TheVeganAtlas.com, my website on vegan food and living.
A permanent archive of papers detailing my career in the arts and book arts (as well as an author of visual nonfiction and bestselling vegetarian and vegan cookbooks), is housed in the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, at Duke University.
I live and work in the Hudson Valley region of New York State.