Diary of a Forgotten Actress: 1972-1979

Diary of a Forgotten Actress: 1972-1979 is a self-published artist's book by the performance artist Marja Samsom, drawn from a decade of diary material. It was issued in a signed, numbered edition of 250, curated by the photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin (credited on the book as Inez & Vinoodh).

The book gathers Samsom's own record of the years 1972-1979, the period in which she began her practice moving between Amsterdam and New York's downtown avant-garde. She worked in Super 8 film and early performance alongside figures like Suzan Pitt and Steve Lacy before her long-running alter egos Miss Behave and Miss Kerr took shape.

Samsom has worked across film, performance, sound and social practice since the early 1970s, presenting Super 8 works at the Byrd Hoffman Foundation, designing record sleeves for the ICP Orchestra, and later running The Kitchen Club as a long-term combined food-and-performance project before returning to full-time art practice in 2011. Her performance work, staged at venues including De Appel and Participant Inc under the Miss Behave and Miss Kerr personas, earned her a New York Acker Award for contributions to the city's downtown art scene.