The life, work and process of alumna and acclaimed Texas-based contextual artist Celia Alvarez Muñoz (’82 M.F.A.) is the subject of a book by Roberto Tejada, associate professor of art history at the University of Texas. Celia Alvarez Muñoz (University of Minnesota Press), part of a series on Latino and Latina artists for the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, follows the artist’s career from her earliest bookmaking project and installation pieces to more recent works of public art and digital photography.

Muñoz, who grew up on the Texas-Mexico border, examines issues of place, nation, culture and language through her art. She has exhibited internationally and was included in the prestigious Whitney Biennial in 1991. She says many of UNT’s art faculty gave her invaluable feedback, but her major professor, Vernon Fisher, was “the icing on the cake.”

“He liked and understood my voice and helped refine it,” she says. “His professionalism and encouragement still serve me today.”