Steiner is an artist and author of seven books on visual and verbal art. An emerita Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, she is a Guggenheim, ACLS, and NYSCA awardee. She created four operas with composer Paul Richards, including an animation short. Her digital music visualization Traces on the Farther Side appeared in the 2019 Personal Structures exhibition, and in 2022, her libretto and photographs join Frances White’s music again in a holographic installation in Palazzo Bembo.