The art of Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell treats architecture as a literal embodiment of ideas, beliefs, and values; theirs is an art that is of the museum and gallery as much as for it. Fabricating models of buildings, they present these in vitrines that take the form of chairs, tables, and wall sculptures—objects with which we enjoy everyday relationships. Sandwiched between two sheets of glass, their plans and cross-sections suggest metaphors for the social structures—the ethical, political, economic, juridical, and cultural systems that ultimately shape us. Langlands & Bell’s abiding interest

The voyeuristic act so pervades contemporary artistic culture that it is virtually invisible. Mobilizing voyeurism as a heuristic device for the understanding of observation—using this perversion as a platform from which to build a sustained meditation on the nature of what has been termed subjective vision—would seem to demand a condition whereby the very act of observation is conceived of self-reflexively. The observer would have to be placed in a position such that the system of conventions that circumscribe and limit his viewing experience are revealed. The act of looking, in other words,