accumulation

The activities taking place behind the scenes in museums have been as important as the modes of the display in public areas.
There is the interesting contrast between revealing and concealing as illustrated in the common museum process of choosing to exhibit one object while keeping others in reserve storage.  The establishment of systems of organization is as instinctive to human nature as is the accumulation and collecting, and artists frequently imitate the institutional practise of creating inventories and archives as part of a working progress.

putman, j. /2001/ art and artifact the museum as medium

thames & hudson, london