Luzia Hürzeler

From cats to birds, and even the gorilla – video and installation artist Luzia Hürzeler (b. 1976) explores representation of animals, critically questioning how living creatures are staged in museums, zoos and works of art. What meanings do we ascribe to them? Through the artist’s lens, this publication opens up new perspectives on the relationships between humans, animals and nature.

At the heart of this volume lies the central question of how we construct “images of nature” and what cultural ideas are bound up with them. In what context is the gorilla placed within a museum diorama, and how did it come to be there? Why do we categorise birds, and what can we interpret from this? Intersecting with science, Luzia Hürzeler’s artworks engage with themes that draw us into a compelling dialogue between art, natural history and cultural history.