Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Kruger's practice reflects the discovery, evident throughout contemporary art, of the formative power of images, the capacity of signs to affect deep structures of belief. Her art is concerned with positioning of the social body, with the ways in which out thoughts, attitudes and desires are determined by society's dictates.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Provocative objects are the heart of Kruger's art work. Pairing banal or perplexing photographs with phrases superimposed directly over the image, she challenges the way in which the viewer's thoughts and attitudes are determined by the dictates of society. An example is her close-cropped depiction of an atomic mushroom cloud with the legend, ``Your manias become science'' across the stem of the cloud. A graphic designer and television critic, Kruger manipulates the commonplace to deconstruct the messages we absorb daily without reflection; in so doing she makes a stronger challenge to the established order than such controversial artists as Serrano and Mapplethorpe. As the most complete overview of an important young artist and a fascinating addition to the debate on censorship in the arts, the book is recommended for most libraries.-- David McClelland, Temple Univ. Lib., Philadelphia (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Without a doubt, Barbara Kruger is one of the most exciting visual artists of the 1980s. Her large pictures combining found photographs and bold, simple texts engage almost every viewer. Her works are always puzzles, asking for solutions, but are never so difficult as to be ignored. Dealing with gender ("What big muscles you have!" "Your comfort is my silence," "I am your reservoir of poses") or money and consumerism ("Buy me, I'll change your life," "We get exploded because they've got money and god in their pockets," "You make history when you do business"), Kruger combines imagery that is somehow familiar with challenging assertions that synergistically create new, discomforting meanings. Experienced in publishing, Kruger knows about the picture-log of our culture, and with a mind educated by feminism and semiotics, she knows about communication and especially about pronouns. This retrospective survey--designed very much in her own style, with bold graphics in red and everything else in black and white, and accompanied by Kate Linker's informative essay--is a valuable, important book, highly recommended for all art collections. Notes. --Gretchen Garner