“Semiotics of the Kitchen” is a feminist video art that examines the symbolism of women's confinement within domestic spaces, utilizing the framework of a televised cooking show. In this piece, Rosler assumes the role of an "anti-Julia Child," wielding a series of kitchen utensils in alphabetical order, some archaic and peculiar, assigning them arbitrary names before forcefully miming their use.
This is a parody of 1970s American daytime television aimed at housewives. In this performance Rosler takes on the role of an apron-clad housewife and parodies the television cooking demonstrations popularized by Julia Child in the 1960s. Standing in a kitchen, surrounded by refrigerator, table, and stove, she moves through the alphabet from A to Z, assigning a letter to the various tools found in this domestic space.