That's super awesome Risker, thanks for sharing (I was born before 1982, but was still too "wee" to know the Dinner Party until my teens!).
the "estrogen-charged" comment is something a lot of people have suggested in their experience of viewing the piece, I bet it was a very empowering experience. The focus of my master's thesis was the long haul acquisition process of the piece - it really went through a lot, and of course is socio and politically charged regarding the representation of mainly Anglo historical and mythical figures in the work and Chicago's accused lack of appreciation for the hundreds of people who volunteered to create the most important feminist artwork of the 20th century.
I haven't heard anyone talk about printed matter and "merchandise," at all, from the original installation. It's a shame it was so expensive - no surprise for the time period - as fine art was still pretty locked down into the "wealthy Anglocentric" community and $80+ litho books were commonplace more than they are now when seeing major exhibitions.
I actually saved my money and when my thesis was accepted and my degree was awarded - and I acquired an original lithograph print from the exhibition signed and numbered by Chicago. Funny, I've been home sick for the past week and I finally took the work out of storage and I'm flattening it for framing.
Strange how this came up this week.
After I turned in my thesis my program said they were surprised my thesis had nothing to do with museums and Wikipedia.
-Sarah