Barbara Visser

The title of this first comprehensive monograph on the respected Dutch conceptual artist comes from the outgoing message on Visser's answering machine. An online program translated the message as, "Barbara fisherman are not there." More realistically, it translates, "Barbara Visser ain't here." In any case, Visser's sometimes humorous, always vivid works are occupied with the uncertain relationship between registration and dramatization, between notions of the original and the copy, the natural versus the staged, and the tension between documentary and fiction. Spanning a wide variety of media and formats, including video, computer animation, photography and performance, Visser's takes an incisive look at "civilized" man and the objects he surrounds himself with--whether savaged Eames chairs or lonely, isolated wigs. Separated into two distinct sections, text and image, the book lends itself to multiple interpretations, allowing the reader to access his or her own memories and associations.