Of Museum Benches

Artist's book featuring an essay on the museum bench as both a functional viewing and sitting device, and a ready-made work of art.

With humor and wit, the essay muses on the ambiguity of a familiar object whose meaning and status are reassigned by the artist. It follows the bench's journey from mundane institutional apparel to a symbol of the act of contemplating - embodying the notion of "being with art" dear to Gilbert and George in "To Be With Art Is All We Ask" (1970). Christophe Cherix ponders "how can one be fully with art? Can art be experienced directly in a society that has produced so much discourse and built so many structures to guide the spectator?" ("A Brief History Of Curating", Hans-Ulrich Obrist)

This book is exhibited with a museum bench in an installation work titled "To Be With Art (Is All I Ask)". To reflect the original form of the artist's book, digital versions are not available.