We Represent Ourselves to the World

The first 176 pages of this book are devoted to the presentation of a single artwork, Stephen Prina's installation Galerie Max Hetzler, made in 1991. In its installed form it consists of the following elements: 163 sepia-toned gelatin silver prints, over-matted with ivory-colored rag board and finished with walnut-stained mahogany wood frames; 163 acrylic labels screenprinted with text; 9 architectural models made from ivory-colored rag board, encased in acrylic and mounted on walnut-stained mahogany veneer plywood pedestals; and an enormous graphic, painted in ivory latex on the wall, floor to ceiling, that reads, "We represent ourselves to the world." Galerie Max Hetzler was created as a site-specific installation for the art gallery of its title, located at that time in Cologne.1 It presents, by way of photography and architectural models, a history of the gallery's exhibitions and locations filtered through Prina's highly devised and analytical interpretative system. As an installation it has a specific physical existence, one governed by the space it inhabits and the time, the history, it documents. This book allows yet another form of time and space for its "installation": a re-presentation of the work for the page, a location that allows a renewed consideration of its rich contents and ideas. This essay is structured around three themes, as introduced by Prina's own words, that are critical to the work: photography, art in architecture, and site-specificity. Finally, the operation of Galerie Max Hetzler in a book as a site for "installation" will be considered.