An incisive essay by art historian Anne Hollander offers an overview of Avedon's images of women. He was able to create an unparalleled view of women in his time, a tumultuous half century of rapidly changing social facts, cultural ideals, popular styles, and high fashion.

Monday's Child is fair of face; Tuesday's Child is full of grace. Wednesday's Child is full of woe; Thursday's Child has far to go. Friday's Child is loving and giving; Saturday's Child works hard for a living. But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day Is bonny and blithe, merry and gay. A medieval fortune describing the life-long luck one should have by the day of the week one was born illuminates the days within the walls of a small-town Texas wine bar. Each day tells its own story from its own voice and its own set of characters, and though the women are strong and men good-looking, it...