Featuring jewellery objects as well as sculptural and conceptual works by fifty-three artists, this publication offers an exciting insight into jewellery-making in Austria dating back to the 1970s.

Emphasis is placed on the female protagonists of the early avant-garde jewellery, whose works are presented in relation to specific roles assumed by the intermediate and younger generations. These selected works from more recent generations not only highlight references to works of the pioneers but also attest to the developments of a fascinating and heterogeneous jewellery scene, whose diversity is yet to be discovered.

The book’s title points (with its use of *) to the exhibition ‘Kunst mit Eigen-Sinn. Aktuelle Kunst von Frauen’ (‘Willful Art: Contemporary Art by Women’), which took place at the Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts in Vienna in 1985 and is regarded as a milestone in the artistic and social history of women.