Results of a project that gathered viewer feedback stemming from the exhibition “Rhetorical Image.” The project, entitled “Rhetorical Image Resource Room,” was intended to disrupt the passive role offered to visitors in most museums, to actively engage participants in a critical and analytical process, and to foreground the value of viewers’ experiences in art interpretation. Participants were asked such questions as “How do you attempt to understand a work of art?” and “How do you see your role as a member of the museum’s audience? How do you think the museum perceives you?” Over 4,000 responses were collected over the nine weeks of the project. Eventually, the cards spilled over onto all the walls in the room. The assemblage presented in this publication cannot duplicate the actual installation. Rather it is partial and suggestive of the range of the responses generated and the potential for museums to create conditions for public dialogue and criticism around issues of cultural politics. 

Rhetorical Image Resource Room: A Viewer Participation Project of The New Museum
Exhibition Catalogue
1991
78 pages; staple-bound; 57 black and white illustrations
New York, New Museum of Contemporary Art
OCLC Number: 27306197

Content from this publication has been redacted due to copyright restrictions. For reference access to redacted images or text, please contact the New Museum Archives: archive@newmuseum.org