Bonvicini first gained international attention in the mid-nineties for works that aggressively addressed the gendered politics of architecture and the built environment. Informed by and furthering the feminist discourse, Bonvicini’s work continues to interrogate the imprimatur of architecture, but has more recently focused on the fetishization of art and architecture as well as the tendency in both disciplines to fetishize materials. In its critique, the work simultaneously questions institutional motivations and the way in which the structures of art are determined and/or challenged by the social and physical parameters of the institution. Bonvicini utilizes language in much the same way she uses, or just as often mis-uses, industrial materials: to break open or reinforce the meaning generated by form.

Never Missing a Line is a concise exhibition featuring two text-based sculptures. The word Desire, cut from polished stainless steel and mounted on a billboard-like structure, greets visitors as they enter SculptureCenter’s courtyard. The cold, quiet space of the courtyard is almost overwhelmed by the sculpture’s sensual, but hard-edged reflective presence. Inside SculptureCenter’s large central hall, Built for Crime, a forty-foot long light sculpture, spells out the eponymous phrase. Constructed of shattered safety glass and light, Built for Crime performs like an advertisement. However, the phrase floats without a subject reference. What is built? And what crime is to be committed?