It used to be said of experimental art that it didn’t really need an audience to view it…. Experimentation for its own sake was to be sufficient …  Of course this was before — or despite — some people reckoning that the value of art was actually something produced in the exchange between artists and audience, in between the work being made and being received. So, they argued, there really isn’t a work until that happens, since the work of art is that happening. … Gail Hastings’ work frames similar questions …  or really, as she says it ‘sets a scene’ — for generating a kind of self-consciousness about looking at art …

Belles-lettre is a project consisting of separate installations by three artists, Maureen Burns, Gail Hastings and Virginia Ward. Based in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth respectively, each has devised a site-specific work for ACCA which explores new definitions of sculpture and the relationships between object, text and space. The ephemeral nature of the communications — both textural and spatial — connects the three installations in belles-lettres, which individually explore cultural terrains and practises.

Media Release, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 6 August 1993