Front Desk/back Office The Secret World of Galleries in 39 Pictures and Two Texts

"Subversive" may be the best description for this little volume pointing out that commercial art galleries are schizophrenic; they explicitly present things with an intellectual and aesthetic value, while on the other hand the experience most definitely has a price tag attached. Rob Hamelijnck presents a selection of photographs he took - mostly without permission - of the pristine front desks and messy back rooms of galleries around the world, and reveals the hidden side of the art machine. Essays by French architect Thibaut de Ruyter and Dutch sociologist Olav Velthuis address provocative questions such as, "Why do all galleries have the same mid-century chairs?" and "Why doesn't the high-heeled young woman at the door ever say hello?" The book is the second of the limited editions produced in the Fucking Good Art series.