The design of the 2010 Whitney Biennial catalogue presents the current exhibition as part of a historical continuum. Displaying an archival
image of the Whitney Museum of American Art interior, as juxtaposed with a photograph of nowPresident Barack Obama on the campaign trail in 2008, the book cover signals the catalogue design’s emphasis on the interwoven connections between art, exhibition, and politics.

Both transitioning between and complicating access between past and present, a series of textured, glossy, awkwardly heavy pages layer archival photographs of the Whitney’s successively more modern three buildings with photographs of one American president per decade. While providing the visceral sense of a visual time machine, this section—connecting
to the book’s cover—acknowledges the weight of American political realities as pervading the privileged space of exhibition. Read Less