The present work comprises thirteen photographs, twelve of which are exhibited, each depicting a single word engraved on the memorial to Theodore Roosevelt that, until recently, stood outside the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Eliding the equestrian statue of the former president that stood at the monument’s center, the artist here isolates each of the heroic attributes that adorn the surrounding space.
The photographs first appeared in the influential anthology of critical writings, Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures (1990), edited by Russell Ferguson, Martha Gever, and Trinh T. Minh-ha, for which Gonzalez-Torres contributed images, and were first exhibited in the artist’s groundbreaking 1991 exhibition at Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, Every Week There Is Something Different.
