Covering the period of her stay in Halifax, from 1972 until her relocation to New York in 1974, the Centre Pompidou exhibition provides an insight into the development of these radical acts. From Breast Forms Permutated (1972) – a delightful mockery of the abstract grids of minimalism, to A Portfolio of Models (1974) – a perusal of the clichés attributed to female psychology, the artist hones a laconic and incisive language. 

In her series entitled Posturing, she adds complexity to role plays by exploring the desire for otherness. Posturing: Drag (1972), for example, shows her attempting to embody a man posing in the manner of a woman. In the wake of the analyses by sociologist Ervin Goffman (The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, 1956), Martha Wilson subtly exposes everyday life as a masquerade and the role of language in the elaboration of representations. In certain respects, her work prefigures Judith Butler's reflections on the performativity of gender. She also inaugurated strategies that would be taken up by other contemporary female artists like Eleanor Antin, Martha Rosler and Cindy Sherman, using female cross-dressing and its verbal deconstruction to question the social injunction to "strike a pose". As early as 1973, Martha Wilson's work attracted the attention of art critic Lucy Lippard who, in her exhibition "C. 7,500" (1973-1974), contextualises her first pieces as part of her pioneering research on feminist conceptual practices. 

Martha Wilson's artistic activity soon extended to a commitment to serving the community, focusing on the underground culture and artistic activism that drove the "culture wars" in 1970s and 1980s New York. In 1976, she created Franklin Furnace, a venue for public programmes and an archive dedicated to artists' books and other ephemera produced by alternative artistic movements that are neglected by institutions. Two years later, she founded the female music group DISBAND, whose members, it was specified, were unable to play any instruments. With their unbridled vocals, these proponents of noise music and punk amateurism unleashed a satirical critique of the art world and political life. She is also famous for her stand-up performances including imitations of the wives of American presidents – public personalities required to fulfil a primarily image-based role – whom she calls "second-class citizens". Martha Wilson's freedom and irreverence never cease to undermine the system of aesthetic, market and political values.