Container, 1992, glass, chrome, laminated wood, 58 silkscreened t-shirts, 3,800 xeroxed texts; 55 x 56 x 36.

‘As pointed as it is, "Stockade" is still not as sharp as "Container” which takes a scalpel to the language used by writers on visual art. Brooks has culled phrases from a number of reviews and printed them on sheets of paper and T-shirts. The case pushes the text past the absurdity Brooks has treated in an earlier exhibition toward the world of commerce, where words may function as logos that dealers can use to peddle their wares. This raises the question of where critics stand in relation to commerce but does not answer it; that the critics who see the piece have to do for themselves. "Container" is the show's strongest example of how Brooks uses language to provoke viewers rather than to give them clever pat answers. Yet his work is not hortatory or didactic. And it may proceed from indignation, but is not angry.’

Excerpt from review of solo exhibition at Dart Gallery, Chicago, Alan Artner, Chicago Tribune, 30 October, 1992 (Download article here)