The Art of Exhibition

So writes Artistic Director Rudi Fuchs in his introduction to the catalogue for the Documenta exhibition of 1982. What one actually encountered, however, at the gate of the splendid palace, the Museum Fridericianum in Kassel, were not heroes at all, but rather a junky-looking construction workers' trailer displaying various objects for sale. The status of these things -whether works of art or merely souvenirs-was not immediately apparent. Among the T-shirts, multiples, and other wares to be found here and at other stands throughout the English garden were sheets of stationery whose upper and lower margins were printed with statements set in small typeface. At the top of one sheet, for example, one could read the following: