Toronto-based media arts distributor, Vtape, has released a new DVD box set that showcases the solo work of Professor Lisa Steele, Associate Chair of the Visual Studies Program at the Daniels Faculty.

The Lisa Steele Collection 1972–1984, includes five DVDs and 16 titles including Birthday Suit—with scars and defects, a work that has been the object of dozens of homage works created by younger artists. Other titles include The Ballad of Dan Peoples, A Very Personal Story, and This is not a home movie, a Super-8 work commissioned to investigate women’s erotic film language. Vtape descripes the collection as "Over 450 minutes of early Feminist fun!"

Writes Jon Davies in Canadian Art:

Steele’s unforgettable characters in these works are neither victims of patriarchy nor feminist heroes; they are complicated and flawed everywomen navigating the social services that are ostensibly there to assist them, but cannot truly understand them. These profoundly embodied portraits—fictional, but distilled from Steele’s keen observation of the women she encountered at Interval House: “synthesizing many women’s lives into single, composite characters,“ as she puts it — simultaneously personalize and politicize domestic violence, representing the artist’s complicity with her subjects.

For more information visit the Vtape website.