"Performance artist Linda M. Montano, curious about the influence childhood experience has on adult work, invited other performance artists to consider how early events associated with sex, food, money/fame, or ritual/death resurfaced in their later work. The result is an original and compelling "talking performance" that documents the production of art in an important and often misunderstood community." "Among the more than 100 artists Montano interviewed from 1979 to 1989 are John Cage, Suzanne Lacy, Faith Ringgold, Dick Higgins, Annie Sprinkle, Allan Kaprow, Meredith Monk, Eric Bogosian, Adrian Piper, Karen Finley, and Kim Jones. Her discussions with them focus on the relationship between art and life, history and memory, the individual and society, and the potential for individual and social change. The interviews highlight complex issues in performance art, including the role of identity in performer-audience relationships and art as an exploration of everyday conventions rather than a demonstration of virtuosity." "Angelika Festa's introduction explores Montano's gradual discovery of the value of her own voice and life experiences. Each section of the book opens with an essay (Christine Tamblyn on sex, Moira Roth on food, Laura Cottingham on money/fame, and Lucy R. Lippard on ritual/death), and Kristine Stiles's afterword provides a historical context for the interviews. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET.