This publication provided a brief overview of the history museums and how they have progressed in terms of exhibiting collections and art and how this gradually evolved from ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ into the installation of avant garde art work. The book covered the various methods of how collections have been displayed in the past to signify importance and significance of the objects, such as, vitrines, plinths, drawer cabinets and specimen jars.

In the beginning museums displayed collections of objects and artifacts, known as a WunderKammer – this consisted of storing objects of a certain category on display in vitrines and cabinets. This traditional way of display has set an example for contemporary art and how we as the visitor are expected to view it; simply by looking with little to no interaction. In the history of traditional display, contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst have adapted their style of work to this method of display. In Hirst’s piece ‘Dead Ends Died Out, Explored 1993’, rows of cigarette butts have been stubbed out in different ways, evenly spaced out in rows in a vitrine. Overall the piece is a neat display that provides a sense of symmetry; it is quite pleasing on the eye to look at despite the objects being a product of waste that you would typically see discarded on a pavement.

The methods used to display artist’s work has become a tool to make tactical or political statements. In Philippe Thomas’s recreation of a museum storage room, Thomas intended this to be a direct attack on the museum system with his collection of installations called ‘Readymades Belong to Everyone 1994’. He believed that people should be buying art directly from the artists rather than going through museum institutions.

Another example of exhibitions being used in a way to highlight issues in society is the Fred Wilson’s strategic placement of a Ku Klux Klan hood in a pram at the ‘Modes of Transport 1770-1910’ Museum Display in Baltimore. This statement was used to suggest the strong probability that this pram was once pushed around by a black nanny for a white baby.

I think it is important to understand curation and why art work is intended to be displayed in a certain way – every element of the exhibition or installation has intended meaning and is representative of an underlying significance.