Sherrie Levine’s work arouses a certain degree of wariness, a sense of elusive suspicion that can never quite be put to rest. Levine herself has done much to set up that scenario, creating work that can leave one in the position of being a dangling participant. She sends up our deep-seated attachment to the concept of the authentic and the original, as well as our hallowed hopes for traditional discourse and/or revelation in art. These qualities are rarely en-countered in the artist’s work, or, better, are found and exposed in a new light. Levine sometimes seems—all pejorative connotations

In spite of its venue—the Spertus Museum is dedicated to the study of Judaica—this exhibition featured works that share some of the qualities found in depictions of the Stations of the Cross. Like those, each of Hannah Dresner’s 20 smallish gouaches is exactly the same size. All were displayed in identical frames, installed in rows at constant intervals, and hung at the same height. The exhibition layout encouraged the viewer to see the work in a particular order, one that led thematically not through despair to salvation, but through experience to knowledge.

There is a heady air of the spiritual