This catalog accompanies a solo exhibition by video and installation artist Luzia Hürzeler that interrogates how animals are represented in zoos, museums, and the media.

Looking at cats, birds, even gorillas—video and installation artist Luzia Hürzeler (b. 1976) explores the representation of animals, critically questioning how living creatures are staged in museums, zoos, and works of art. What meanings do we ascribe to them? Through the artist’s lens, this publication opens up new perspectives on the relationships between humans, animals and nature.

At the heart of this volume lies the central question of how we construct “images of nature” and what cultural ideas are bound up in them. In what context is the gorilla placed within a museum diorama, and how did it come to be there? Why do we categorize different types of birds, and what can we glean from this impulse? Luzia Hürzeler’s artworks engage with themes that draw us into a compelling dialogue between art, natural history and cultural history.