In the introductory essay for this monograph, art critic Barbara Rose draws on themes which she argues separate Pepper from other environment-oriented artists of the period. Rose places Pepper outside the mainstream of the conceptual and theory based generation of earth artists and minimalists by making the distinction that Pepper's art is not rooted in academic abstraction.

Pepper's work is described as coming out of the tradition of sculpture rather than a literalist reaction to the illusionist tradition of painting, as did minimal art. Her work is positioned as intuitive and felt as opposed to rational and thought. Esthetically, Rose argues that Pepper's origins were not the modernist flat planes of Cubism, but rather personal, classically inspired volumetric forms with expressions of opposition, of hollow, void and solid. Her outsider status is further reinforced by the fact that, while American, she has lived much of her professional life outside the United States, primarily in Italy and much of her built work has been realized in Europe.

This monograph is number six in the "Landmarks" series published by Spacemaker Press. The focus of this publication is on three recent large scale site-specific sculptures. Included is a handsomely illustrated folio section of the three projects in Barcelona, Spain, Pistoia, Italy and Zurich, Switzerland, all dating from the late 1980's to mid 1990's. The publication concludes with an interview that fleshes out many of the themes outlined in the introductory essay, giving this publication the depth and personality of the artist's own words.

Ken Smith is a landscape architect practicing in New York City.