Anna Goodman Herrick on Altar with Wheelchair Ramp,
part of her installation, We Put Our Bodies on the Altar
Root Division Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2020)
Materials: Wood, Aluminum, Steel, Textile, Video, Recorded Audio.
Dimensions: 12 ft high x 12 ft wide x 8 ft deep
Anna Goodman Herrick’s monthlong interactive installation We Put Our Bodies on the Altar— and her opening and closing night performances— included Altar with Wheelchair Ramp, a life-size altar holding a person up to 600 pounds, and a working, beautiful, gilded wheelchair ramp, that welcomed ALL visitors to take their place on the altar— and consider: What have you sacrificed? Who has sacrificed you? What will you honor? What will you offer?
The piece featured captions that were integrated into the artistic aesthetic, and recorded audio of the projected words incorporated into the work.
Anna Goodman Herrick opening night performance art for her monthlong installation, We Put Our Bodies on the Altar
Root Division Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2020)
Performing on Altar with Wheelchair Ramp,
TOWARDS ACCESSIBILITY AS INTEGRAL TO THE ARTS— NOT AN AFTERTHOUGHT
ALTAR WITH WHEELCHAIR RAMP
Anna Goodman Herrick transforms language into a physical and visual experience, working across print, painting, video, performance, and installation, deepening paths towards accessibility. Her work has been exhibited at Alena Museum, Root Division Gallery, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., the Alena Museum in Oakland, CA, and NEARCON Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, where she created an immersive VR experience based on her text-driven video art. She has performed at the Emily Dickinson Museum, Patagonia’s Earth Day, Bloomsday on Broadway, and more
DIASPORA PRAYER OF A REFUGEE’S GRANDCHILD
For DIASPORA PRAYER OF A REFUGEE’S GRANDCHILD, Anna was invited, in 2023, to work with Lowkey Giant Magazine to create a VR version so that attendess could — and did— access and interact with the installation from their own homes.
Title: “Diaspora Prayer of the Refugee’s Grandchild”
Medium: Video Art
Dimension: 16 x 9 4K HD
ExhibitIon Tour, including:
Life as Ceremony Digital Exhibit, Curator: Alica Baca (2021)
Now! Journal: Stories Left Out Digital Exhibition (2021)
Title: “Diaspora Prayer of the Refugee’s Grandchild VR Experience”
Medium: Virtual Reality
Sample from VR
Exhibitions:
Low Key Giant Magazine presents ROOTS (2023)
NEARCON Conference, Lisbon, Portugal (2023)
BODIES BELOVED
Authors Julián Jamaica Soto, Anna Goodman Herrick, Meliza Bañales, and Kelsey Bryan-Zwick with Bodies Beloved at AWP 25.
In 2025, Anna co-created Bodies Beloved, a coalition of queer, trans, and disabled published authors in solidarity, centering and amplifying those with intersecting experience. The project launched at AWP Literary Conference 2025 the largest Literary Conference in the world, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, one of the world’s largest conferences.
The launch event featured book signings for the over 8,000 attendees with: one of the legendary founders of disability justice, Leroy F. Moore Jr.; Executive Director of Trans Unitarian Universalists (TrUUST) and disabled activist Julián Jamaica Soto, Poetry Slam Champion and disability justice author Meliza Bañales AKA Missy Fuego, and more. The event awarded scholarships to queer and trans disabled authors to reduce financial barriers to participation and provided wheelchair-accessible vans and assistance drivers for those who needed it.
Bodies Beloved’s booth at the AWP bookfair became a hub, a gathering place for queer and trans disabled attendees and aspiring authors to find each other, connect, ask questions, and meet role models— all within an accessible environment.
Author and Text Artist Anna Goodman Herrick created the Bodies Beloved logo and art, integrating the Progressive Pride Flag and the Disability Pride Flag.
[Image: “Speak Wild Presents Bodies Beloved” in bold black text, with Progressive Pride flag in first “O” and Disability Pride flag in second “O.” Blue roses and petals decorate the text.]