Sterbak earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Concordia University,[1] completing classes in film history with John Locke and Tom Waugh, as well as painting with Yves Gaucher [2] Guido Molinari.

Several solo shows followed: in 1992, at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark) and at the MoMA New York,[6] where one of her iconic installations, Sisyphus, was presented (this work then joined MAC Marseille's collection,) and in 1993 at La Caixa Foundation in Barcelona.

[7] Velleitas, a solo exhibition curated by Corinne Diserens was presented in 1995 at the Musee d’art moderne of Saint-Étienne and at Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona,[8] and at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1996.

Her palette ranges from metal and wire, which may be considered permanent, unyielding, or restrictive, to the likes of bread, cake, chocolate, and/or meat, all of which are organic and evoke associations with food as well as the element of decomposition.

In a 1989 newspaper article, titled, “Art that is absolutely shocking,” author Brian Volke of The Leader-Post writes, “The works can be grouped into two general categories, furniture and dresses, both of which are usually considered part of the feminine domain.

Equipped with a Van de Graaff generator, the couch provides an electrostatic charge that makes one anything but comfortable.” Attitudes (1987), features a king-sized bed with embroidered pillows that read, “Disease, Reputation,” and “Greed,” and also mentioned is an electrified wire garment titled, “I Want You To Feel the Way I Do… (The Dress).” Sterbak’s iconic piece, “Vanitas- Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic,” (1987) is noted for the way it, “conjures images of women as “pieces of meat” - commodities who starve themselves to fit into fashionable clothes.