Melissa Johnson

Professor, Art History & Visual Culture

Wonsook Kim School of Art

Office

CVA Center For The Visual Arts 214c

Office Hours

By appointment.

Office Phone

(309) 438-8170office
phone

majohn2@ilstu.eduemail

About
Education
Research

Biography

Melissa Johnson is Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at Illinois State University. She has been a member of the ISU faculty since 2004 and teaches in the areas of modern art, history of photography, and visual culture.

She holds a Ph.D. in art history from Bryn Mawr College, a M.I.L.S. in archives from The University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), and a B.A. in art history and English from The University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). She is on Core faculty for Women's & Gender Studies.

Current Courses

ART 175.001 Gender and Identity in Art & Visual Culture

ART 267.001 History of Photography

ART 287.004 Independent Study

ART 411.001 Seminar in Visual Culture & Theory: Text and Textiles

ART 311.001 Seminar in Visual Culture, History, and Theory: Craft and Modern/Contemporary Art

ART 411.001 Seminar in Visual Culture, History, and Theory: Craft and Modern/Contemporary Art

ART 311.001 Seminar in Visual Culture, History, and Theory: Gender & Identity in Art and Visual Culture

ART 311.001 Seminar in Visual Culture, History, and Theory: Text & Textiles

ART 411.001 Seminar: Gender & Identity in Art and Visual Culture

Teaching Interests & Areas

Modern art, history of photography, gender, craft, visual culture

Research Interests & Areas

Dr. Johnson’s research focuses on the histories of modern and contemporary art, craft, collage & montage, and gender & identity. Her current research examines the intersection of craft with modern and contemporary art. She is currently working on a project that explores artists making work in response to the writings of Virginia Woolf and has a chapter in the forthcoming Edinburgh Companion to Virginia Woolf and Transnational Perspectives, titled “’A world where the body is as eloquent and articulate as the text’” SITI Company’s theatrical engagement with the writing of Virginia Woolf.” She’s deeply interested in situating her academic writing and her text- and textile-based work as parallel and, sometimes, integrated practices. She is working on two creative writing and textile projects, “Woolf Words” and “Haptic Investigations,” as well as a project on mending and repair.

PhD Art History

Bryn Mawr College

Bryn Mawr, PA

M.L.I.S. (Master of Library and Information Science) Archives

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, MI

AB Art History

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, MI

Performances and Exhibits

"a wandering thread"
Melissa A Johnson
McLean County Art Center. January 9 2026 - February 20 2026

"The book has somehow to be adapted to the body," 2024 Faculty Biennial, Illinois State University
Melissa A Johnson
October 14 2024 - December 2 2024

“The book has somehow to be adapted to the body”
Melissa A Johnson
33rd Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, California State University. June 6 2024 - June 9 2024

“Drawing finer and finer the thread between us” / Faculty Biennial
Melissa A Johnson
University Galleries, ISU. January 2022 - February 2022

"Drawing finer and finer the thread between us" - My Covid Year
Melissa A Johnson
McAuley Gallery, Heartland Community College. July 16 2021 - October 8 2021

Book, Chapter

Johnson, M. "A Desire in the Process of Becoming". Kendra Paitz (EDs), Strange Oscillations and Vibrations of Sympathy. University Galleries of Illinois State Unversity (2017)

Johnson, M. Weimar Cultural Production: Visual Pleasure and Radical Critique in the Work of Hannah Höch. Essays on Women’s Artistic and Cultural Contributions 1919-1939. Edwin Mellen Press (2009)

Johnson, M. Souvenirs of Amerika: the Weimar Mass-Media Scrapbook of Hannah Höch. The Scrapbook in American Life. Temple University Press (2006)

Johnson, M. “The book has somehow to be adapted to the body.” Woolf Words and Tactile Investigations: a commonplace book.”. Woolf & Ecologies: Selected Papers from the 32nd Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf (2023).. Clemson University Digital Press

Johnson, M. • Room: “’A world where the body is as eloquent and articulate as the text’” SITI Company’s theatrical engagement with the writing of Virginia Woolf”. Elisa Bolchi (EDs), The Edinburgh Companion to World Wide Woolf. Edinburgh University Press

Creative Works/Broadcast Media

Johnson, M. Shift Rotate Reflect, Selected Works 1997-2020 by Jen Bervin. Fayen d'Evie (EDs). 1:1:Infinity, Issue 3 3-ply / Liquid Architecture (2020)

Johnson, M. "Woolf Words". Before the Party (poetry anthology). Indigo Dreams

Journal Article

Johnson, M. • “Drawing finer and finer the thread between us”. Vara Navarov (EDs). Virginia Woolf Miscellany (2022): 23-26.

Johnson, M. Italy zerwühlt: Hannah Höch’s Dadaist Italienreise. Colloquia Germanica 46.3 (2016)

Presentations

“Crafting in ‘sympathetic collaboration’”. 34th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf. (2025)

• “Rebuilt from holes and patches: Audra Wolowiec’s Workbook for a Performance.. 34th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf. (2025)

Arpillera Workshop. Embroidering Histories: The Chilean Arpilleras 1973 to 2023. Illinois Wesleyan Univeristy - Hispanic Studies Program. (2024)

Dangerous Text(ile)s: the Chilean arpilleras in context. “Embroidering Histories: The Chilean Arpilleras 1973 to 2023”. Illinois Wesleyan University. (2024)

The book has somehow to be adapted to the body. Woolf Words and Tactile Investigations: a commonplace book. Southeastern Association of Cultural Studies [SEACS] annual conference, 2024. Southeastern Association of Cultural Studies [SEACS]. (2024)

“a million hands stitch” … “words and words in phrases”. 33rd Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf. (2024)

• “‘I use words the way I would weave.’: Resonances between Woolf and Ann Hamilton”. 33rd Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, California State University. (2024)

• “a million hands stitch”…”words and words in phrases”. Illinois Art Education Association (IAEA), 2024 Fall Conference. Illinois Art Education Association. (2024)

• "Beatrix Reinhardt and Dianna Frid," Textiles at ISU, University Galleries ISU, March 31, 2023

• "The book has somehow to be adapted to the body. Woolf Words and Tactile Investigations: a Commonplace Book," 32nd Annual Conference on Virginia Woolf, Florida Gulf Coast University, June 2023

• Craft Ecologies Workshop, 32nd Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, Florida Gulf Coast University, June 2023

• "If we try to put reality into words it falls apart; instead reality dwells in shapes": Anne Bogart & Ellen Lauren in SITI Company's Room (2000), 8th International Conference on Movement and Computing Conference, June 2022

• "What he said and she said and make poetry": reading, writing, and stitching Woolf Words," International Virginia Woolf Conference: Virginia Woolf & Ethics," 31st Annual Conference on Virginia Woolf, June 2022.

• “'a mosaic would be its image': visual pleasure and critique in Hannah Höch’s scrapbook," Refractions of Mass Culture: Modernist Print Media and the Logic of Multiplication, Leibniz University of Hannover, Hannover, Germany, September 2022

• “Room: “A world where the body is as eloquent and articulate as the text” SITI Company’s theatrical engagement with the writing of Virginia Woolf," Faculty Biennial, University Galleries ISU, February, 2022

• “’A world where the body is as eloquent and articulate as the text’: Anne Bogart’s theatrical engagement with the writing of Virginia Woolf,” International Virginia Woolf Society, Annual Conference: Profession and Performance, June 2021

• “’Where the Body Is As Eloquent and Articulate as the Text’: Anne Bogart (SITI Company) and Ann Hamilton’s the theater is a blank page,” Feminist Art History Conference, September 2021

• “The Weight of Centuries: Dawn Roe & Virginia Woolf,” Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, Feb 22-24, 2018.

• ’I however, want to talk about quite harmless things.’ Hannah Höch’s Dadaist Italienreise.. German Studies Association. (2014)