Bill Gilbert lives in Cerrillos New Mexico in the house he and his wife, Anne Nelson, built with adobe dug on site. He is Emeritus Distinguished Professor and Lannan Endowed Chair at the University of New Mexico where he founded the Art & Ecology area, the Land Arts of the American West program and the Land Arts Mobile Research Center with support from Lannan Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

From 1990-2000 Gilbert served as head of Ceramics at UNM. His involvement in developing the Ceramics curriculum included work with Indigenous artists from Acoma Pueblo and Pastaza, Ecuador and Mestizo artists from Juan Mata Ortiz, Mexico. He has curated numerous exhibitions and published on the topic of Indigenous ceramics practices in the Americas.

Gilbert has exhibited his sculptural installations, video and performance work internationally since 1981. Over the past fifteen years Gilbert has developed a walking art practice completing projects in the United States, Canada, Greece and Australia.

Gilbert is author of two books, Land Arts of the American West and Arts Programming for the Anthropocene: art in community and environment, both of which address the need to update the curriculum in tertiary level art education to prepare students to contribute to the changing world they enter upon graduation.