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From `cabinets of curiosities' to assemblages of found objects and imitations of museum displays, artists have often turned their attention to the ideas and systems traditionally embodied in the museum - display, archiving, classification, storage, curatorship - which they have then appropriated, mimicked and reinterpreted in their own work. Citing a huge range of examples, James Putnam shows not only the ways in which artists have been influenced by museum systems and made their works into simulations of the museum, but also how they have questioned the role of museums, observed their practices, intervened in them and helped to redefine them. 'A rare experience. It is a book concerned with complex issues that expresses them in a simple, engaging way and refrains from retreating into jargon ... a rewarding exercise in the visual.' - The Art Book 'A significant addition to the existing scholarship' - Tate Magazine

Art and Artifact: The Museum as Medium

I. The Museum Effect: The Artist as Archivist * II. Art or Artifact?: The Artist as Collector * III. Public Enquiry: The Artist as Investigator IV. Framing the Frame: The Artist as Observer * V. Curator/Creator: The Artist as Visiting Curator * VI. On the Inside: The Artist as Interventionist * VII. Without Walls: The Artist as Reinventor