Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ann Zahn received a B.A. in psychology from Duke University, followed by a master's degree in painting from The American University in 1967. She also studied printmaking at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland for three years, from 1972-1975. Her principal teachers were Robert Broderson at Duke University, Robert Gates and Ben Summerford at The American University and Michael Pierce at Montgomery College.

Most of her activity in printmaking has been in two extensive series of works. The first, filling the decade from 1975 to 1985, is called 100 Views of Home, and the second, from 1988 to the present, is gathered under the heading of Garden Journal. In both series, a wide range of techniques and media appear: etching, aquatint, dry-point, lithography, woodcut and linoleum cut, together with artist's books and pieces incorporating hand-made paper. She works both in color and in black-and-white and always at the scene, directly on the block, stone or plate. She often "tells a story" ina series of related works, many of which explore her preoccupation with the theme of time passing, expressed both through contrasts of light and darkness ("day" and "night" versions of a particular subject) and as a sequence of events.

Since 1977, Zahn has run the Printmakers Workshop in her Bethesda, Maryland studio, where many area printmakers have gathered to work together, contributing a rich variety of ideas, experiences and interests. Over the years, these artists have exhibited their work as a group in the Washington area on a number of occasions.

Zahn was one of the originators of the Washington Area Printmakers Original Print Calendar in 1972 and has participated in this project every year since then. She was a founding member of the Washington (D.C.) Printmakers Gallery and of Creative Partners Gallery in Bethesda, Maryland. She has taught courses in etching, woodcut and design variously at the University of Maryland (College Park), The American University, and George Mason University (Fairfax, Virginia).

Zahn's work is represented by the following organizations:

• June Linowitz, Art Seen, Bethesda, MD
• Globe Gallery, Berlin, MD
• Alex Gallery, Washington, DC

Zahn's work is included in many private collections as well as in the following public collections:

• Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
• Georgetown University, Washington, DC
• Library of Congress, Washington, DC
• Montgomery County (MD) Government
• Museum of Fine Art, Portland, OR
• Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
• National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
• National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
• National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
• National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Rockville, MD
• Psychiatric Institute of Montgomery County, Rockville, MD