Stories of Almost Everyone

This book addresses how artifacts and objects of contemporary art create meaning and mythology in equal measure. What challenges does exhibiting a work pose to the inherent muteness of objects? How do artists choose to speak on behalf of inanimate artifacts and byproducts of material culture and the natural world? This volume coincides with an exhibition that examines these questions and is organized around the idea that objects possess narrative histories that the conventions of display can only, at best, approximate.