THE SECOND OLDEST PROFESSION
THE WET NURSE REVERED AND REVILED
**NEW YORK, NY—**Duane Thomas Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of works on paper and sculpture by artist Barbara Zucker, opening on February 12, 2026, with a reception from 6 to 8 PM. The exhibition coincides with the publication and launch of Zucker’s book, The Second Oldest Profession: The Wet Nurse, Revered and Reviled, published by Abbeville Press.
Conceived as both a social history and a feminist act of reparation, The Second Oldest Profession investigates the largely erased history of wet nursing—an ancient occupation shaped by class, race, misogyny, and economic necessity. The exhibition brings Zucker’s decades-long research into physical form, presenting works that explore breastfeeding, labor, care, and the female body. Several works on view are featured in the book, underscoring the deep interrelationship between Zucker’s visual practice and her scholarship.
The wet nurse—a woman hired to breastfeed a child not her own—was once ubiquitous across cultures and social classes, from royal households to orphanages. Zucker’s work confronts the emotional, political, and bodily realities of this labor, examining both its reverence and its stigmatization. Through sculpture, drawing, and archival reference, she gives presence to women whose work sustained generations yet remained marginalized and morally policed.
Zucker’s artistic language is at once direct and poetic, combining material sensitivity with conceptual rigor. This body of work challenge sentimentalized narratives of motherhood, instead foregrounding the physical demands, sacrifices, and social inequities embedded in reproductive labor. The exhibition invites viewers to reconsider the histories—and ongoing realities—of care work through a feminist lens.
Barbara Zucker is professor emerita of art at the University of Vermont and a founding member of A.I.R. Gallery, one of the first women’s cooperative gallery in the United States. Her work has been exhibited widely and is held in numerous public and private collections.
The exhibition will be on view at Duane Thomas Gallery from February 12 through April 19, 2026. Copies of The Second Oldest Profession: The Wet Nurse, Revered and Reviled will be available at the gallery.