Portrait of Deb (1988-199?) (2012-2013) honors an archive of activist buttons, stickers and ephemera that was given to the artist in 2011. The archive spans the late 1980s to mid-1990s and belonged to someone who was active in ACT-UP, the Women's Health Action Mobilization and the Lesbian Avengers. Illustrating the intersectional politics active during this era, Roberts stitched a single-strand embroidery of the collection to form a textile archive. Portrait of Deb (1988-199?) was exhibited in This is a Portrait if I Say So: Identity in American Art, 1912 to Today at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, ME in 2016.

In 2023, The Brooklyn Museum acquired Portrait of Deb (1988-199?) for the permanent collection.