[7] in 1978, her work was shown at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park[8] in the vibrant program headed by director Josine Ianco-Starrels.
As art historian, Suzaan Boettger, has written, "This 'social realism' exemplifies not the didactic, overly politicized American painting of the 1930s nor the propagandistic version perverted and promoted by authoritarian governments everywhere, but that of Gustave Courbet's 1855 demonstration of a 'realist allegory' -- of that desire to portray representative figures and situations that suggest the actualities of modern life.
In reference to Wurm's layered painting style, Miller writes "the figments of previous presences hover like ghosts, crowding the scene with an unexplained history.
"[18] Wurm’s work was first placed in the context of Bay Area Figurative Painting in an exhibition[19] at the University of California San Diego’s Mandeville Art Gallery, which showcased Joan Brown, Roy De Forest, and Robert Colescott.
In 1985, Boettger wrote "Her flattened, expressively outlined forms also merge the expressionistic and realist approaches to figuration, which are both prominently associated with the art of the San Francisco Bay region since World War II.
"[23] Suzanne Muchnic contextualized the work as indicative of the all-American lifestyle, writing "If you dug these paintings up a thousand years from now, you'd have a fair idea of American middle-class mentality in the mid-20th century.
[citation needed] Her artwork is in public collections including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts,[26] the New York Public Library Print Collection,[27] the Universität für Angewante Kunst[28] in Vienna, University of California, Tiroler Landesmuseen,[29] Moderne Galerie / Graphische Sammlungen, Innsbruck[30] The series of watercolors developed for the Ladengalerie exhibition “Das Tier” are now part of the Archive Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen[31] and documented in "Torso," the third volume of an historical survey of women artists in Berlin.