Histoire des robes, 1990

Annette Messager’s penchant for mixing many types of media is driven by her belief that every person has multiple identities. In her assemblage series Histoire des robes (Story of Dresses), created in the 1990s, she juxtaposes tiny drawings, fragments of photographs, and other assorted materials with delicate dresses, all locked within sealed glass cases like memory boxes or reliquaries. As surrogates for the body, festooned with garlands of memories, the dresses hint at the complex and partly subconscious makeup of identity and the fantasies, fairy tales, and nightmares that can lie within.