L J Douglas was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She has lived in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago and currently resides in Bloomington, Illinois.

Douglas has exhibited painting, drawing, works on paper and artists' books across the country. She has been active in artists' books since 1998 and her work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Wash. D.C.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Wash. D.C.; Brooklyn Museum, NY as well as other significant collections (see Vitae for complete list).

Douglas currently teaches undergraduate and graduate Painting and Drawing at Illinois State University. Douglas has also taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College, University of Illinois at Chicago, and was a visiting artist at University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

In addition to her work in Artists' books, Painting and Drawing Douglas has also exhibited installations and was the co-executator of the first public commission in the city of Evanston, Illinois (her collaborating partner was Gary Justis).

Douglas has also written art criticism for the New Examiner and Dialogue Magazines. She is currently curating an exhibit for McLean County Art Center titled Exposed: Envisioning the Invisible.