Suvan Geer (artist/writer), Lorraine Serena and Darlene Nguyen Ely (artist)

The nature of Women Beyond Borders extends beyond self-imposed divisions of class, politics, race, religion, geography and has at its heart the building of community. This unprecedented collection of miniature boxes challenges categories and shifts toward a reality that defies definition. The basic box provides a catalyst for further connection via modern technology. These new dimensions of communication allow us the historic opportunity to create a global community. Dialogue and collaboration follow, leading to understanding, interaction, and trust. This expansion of community has become the form, the process, the way.

WBB has been ten years in the making. Original boxes continue to arrive from such distant places such as Java, the Philippines, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Fiji. We continue to be inspired by the time and attention given to the humble object and have become connected to each participant through this common visual language. Six hundred curators, artists, coordinators, and sponsors represent over thirty nations.

The box, reminiscent of a hope chest, is a resonating, archetypal symbol of woman herself. It expresses the hopes, dreams and ideas of women and their quest for freedom of expression throughout the world. WBB honors their vitality, wisdom, sensitivity, and collective power.

Linda McCall and Sojourner Rolle who organized a poetry workshop about women with Abigail Albrect

Completed works range from powerful, conceptual pieces to whimsical and nostalgic boxes. Those from Mexico are colorful, some sinister; from Japan, powerful and provocative; from Argentina, sculptural and earthy; from Paris, sophisticated and deliberate. Cuban images reflect perseverance and a longing for liberation. Some works are fraught with the terror of oppression and others brim with hope and humor. The images cross the spectrum of human experience: love, birth, relationship, power, hope, courage, violence, death, and the sacred, transmitting a variety of expression and a depth of vision that defy their size.

Each exhibition varies as coordinators reinvent the project at each location, inviting children and adults to participate, anthropologists and art historians to speak, poets to reflect, and viewers to comment. The boxes have roamed the world traveling from historic museums to a temple in Katmandu, a 15th century villa overlooking Umbria, a mall in Canada, an historic train car in Europe, and most recently, a museum atop a forested hillside in Japan. The boxes have been accessible to thousands of viewers through these diverse venues where participating artists have gathered to meet, celebrate, and exchange ideas.

Teacher and students visiting WBB at the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Numerous events inspired by the process and intent of WBB continue to occur, including adjunct exhibitions and workshops. A new project titled First Footsteps is being developed in the Rift Valley in the heart of East Africa. Its theme is the recognition and celebration of women from the beginning of time, the roots of humanity. Upcoming benefit exhibitions will include boxes by people from all walks of life, embracing the universality of the creative impulse.

Comments from viewers continue to inspire. One such comment is from a young student in St. Petersburg, Russia, who, after viewing the boxes from Cuba, Vietnam, and Israel, said, "Women Beyond Borders opens up the worlds, souls, and hearts of women for others and helps us all to find strength in our future fight with our destiny."

As the boxes are opened, so is communication. The beauty of Women Beyond Borders lies in this spirit of support evidenced as women contact one another, exchange, collaborate, and converse, as they come out of isolation into relation.

WBB continues to be envisioned in a manner far greater collectively that it could ever be individually. To all those who have made it possible, we are forever grateful. Appreciation goes to all the WBB artists who have participated in this collaboration by transforming boxes and also to curators, coordinators, sponsors, and institutions who have created unique and compelling exhibitions.

WBB box restoration team, Saritha Margon, Laurie Zimmer and Pepa Devan

I gratefully acknowledge Suzi Gablik and Suzanne Lacy for their inspiration to make art as if the world matters. My work with them took me forever out of isolation as a singular artist into the world of collaboration, where I have found the greatest meaning of the word art as derived from the Latin ars, artis: to join together. As we move forward with a sense of solidarity and collective confirmation, there is no doubt that extending community has become the work.

In the broadest sense, WBB is not only about the participants. Look and listen to the artists in this exhibition. Hear their universal pleas for healing, justice, respect, and liberation. Observe their reverence for the home, the world, and one another. The artists share their deepest convictions. Those who have seen the myriad creations are forever connected to their eternal truths.

Dr. Michele Andina presenting WBB at the Singapore Art Museum to curator Joyce Fan, spring 1998, en route to Nepal.