The Arts/Industry residency is a longstanding innovative collaboration between Kohler Co. and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center whereby each year, up to twelve artists work in the pottery and foundry of Kohler Co. to explore new ideas, techniques, and perspectives during a three-month residency. Joyce Kozloff came to the Arts/Industry program in 1986-87, with the express purpose of producing ceramic tiles for a commission at Detroit’s Financial Center People Mover Station. Prior to her residency, she had been executing public commissions in her home studio. As an Arts/Industry resident, Kozloff had access to the Kohler Co. materials and production facilities to create the components for this installation working in a studio on the factory floor.

Joyce Kozloff: How We Know What We Know considers a twenty-year span of Kozloff’s career, beginning with her Arts/Industry residency. Through a presentation of work from five of her series (among them are Voyages, Knowledge, and Targets) from 1986–2006, it traces her transition from the Pattern and Decoration Movement into cartography.