In THE EQUAL AND INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF ALL, the central form is composed of the first sentence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10, 1948. The artwork is a part of a larger project by Hamilton that relies on a concordance layout—a referencing method that alphabetizes principal and recurring words of a large document into an index, examining intersections of context while detecting the frequency of their usage. To create this work, the text was photographically transferred to copper plates and embossed onto damp paper blindly (without ink). When the paper dried, the printer dabbed a tarlatan cotton fabric pad into a pallet of ink and then lightly swiped it across the paper. The result is a delicate cloud of color that subtly evokes the specter of a body or soul as referenced in the text.

Hamilton is a visual and performance artist renowned for her multimedia and public sculptures and installations. Hamilton received her BFA in Textile Design from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS (1979), and MFA in Sculpture from the Yale University of Art, New Haven, CT (1985). She represented the United States at the 1991 Sao Paulo Bienal and 1999 Venice Biennale, and her work has been widely exhibited at major art institutions around the world. Her commissioned works include projects for the Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; and Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.

Among numerous awards, honors, and fellowships, Hamilton has received the National Endowment for the Arts National Medal of Arts Award, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur “genius” Foundation Fellowship, 14th Annual Heinz Award for Arts and Humanities, United States Artist USA Fellowship, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, and various honorary doctorates from universities across the United States. Hamilton is a Distinguished University Professor at Ohio State University and resides in Columbus, OH.