Book excerpt: Traversing abstraction, drawn or printed text, collage, sculptural effects and humorous figuration, the work of Richard Aldrich (born 1975) constitutes an index of possibilities in painting. Aldrich frequently integrates objects such as canvas scraps or book pages in his works, citing rather than deploying the idea of a picture plane, and also loads his works with literary and personal references. For his first solo museum exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Aldrich presents 20 large-scale works alongside paintings by Edouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard and the Irish portraitist Sir William Orpen, selected from the Museum's permanent collection. These three nineteenth-century artists have very little in common with Aldrich, and yet are ideally counterpointed against his paintings, refocusing the works of all four in fascinating ways. Published on the occasion of this exhibition, this volume records this exemplarily adventurous exhibition.