MRS. MANN, A PART-TIME housewife, has assembled a show called “The Safe Way” from photographs she has made of grocery products. She seems to feel that the trend towards increased simplification of life has made life very complex indeed—that the prepackaging (a nest of chicken legs, the sugar decorations for a birthday cake), pre-fabrication (a TV dinner, a can of potatoes), pre-digestion (the list of ingredients from a cat food package), and pre-dictation (the instructions for opening and closing various packages) which are shown in her photographs are indicative of a fundamental disturbance in the direction of contemporary American life. Mrs. Mann’s contention that her work in no way derives from Pop Art is patently ridiculous.
