Book excerpt: Considered a premier assemblage artist, Betye Saar has been creating inspired pieces since the early 1960s. Her works are in the collections of notable museums like Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City; Museum of Fine Art, Boston; The Studio Museum in Harlem; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She has taught at the University of California and at the Parsons-Otis Institute, both in Los Angeles, and has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Betye Saar is a comprehensive look at Saar's works, from the 1960 print Samsara to the powerful mixed-media assemblage Blackbird (2002), and a dynamic career.