Christian Boltanski has been one of the most serious and persistent investigators of curatorial methodology in contemporary art. At the 1991 Carnegie International he created archives of 3000 Swiss obituaries and of all the artists in the Carnegie International since 1896. In Inventory (1995), at the New York Historical Society, Boltanski presented a complete collection—all the possessions of an "ordinary" New Yorker were displayed in museum vitrines.

Peter Greenaway, trained as a painter, revisted the art world after 30 years of film-making. 100 Objects to Represent the World (Vienna, 1992), is an eccentric and poetic collection that included a shadow, a fallen tree, an anchor, a crashed aircraft, the alphabet, chainsaws, an artwork, a severed head, a large map, a collection of bones, of ears, of birds, alcohol, newspapers, and a pile of dust. 100 Objects to Represent the World parodies the popular collections known as time-capsules, and is especially reminiscent of the message sent up with the Voyager space craft , which included recorded greetings in sixty human tongues as well as the song of the humpback whale.

Jim Shaw's Thrift Store Paintings, an exhibition of 185 anonymous amateur paintings purchased at thrift stores, was one of the most powerful exhibitions of the '90's. These paintings were funny and frightening,and reminded us to pay attention to the quiet teenage boy next door who paints buxom women and flaming eyeballs. The title of the painting shown here isWoman in Underwear Smiles at Photo by Pink Couch.