The book offers the first retrospective overview of the artistic accomplishments of American conceptual artist Louise Lawler during the past twenty years. It also presents a number of very recent works. Lawler (born 1947 in Bronxville, New York) subjects the concept of art to critical analysis by photographing drawings, paintings, and sculptures and incorporating aspects of their immediate surroundings into these "copies." Viewed with a certain detachment, her demystified reproductions also reveal the contextual and situational connotations of the artworks, which recede to a certain extent into the background. In her own exhibitions Lawler restages and reflects on these institutionalizations and questions connotational shifts brought on by art industry. In the process, she makes it clear that the presentation - and thus the interpretation - of art can never be free of value judgments. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-1420-4)