Invited in 1970 to contribute to a boxed edition of photographic works by various artists, Mel Bochner produced a set of nine quotations addressing issues of photography, art, and representation. These were accompanied by a “negative” image of a Polaroid photograph that he had made in 1968. Together the texts and image suggest that the relationships between photography, the world, and the human condition are too multi-faceted and complex to be described within a single framework. Bochner further presents the possibility that photographic images themselves are more complicated than they seem on the surface. Since Polaroid photography in 1968 did not yield a negative, it follows that the Polaroid negative in this piece was faked. However, the artist’s goal does not seem to be simply calling into question the authority of photography. He also undermines his viewers’ trust in verbal language by falsifying three of the nine texts and refusing to identify the invented statements. Ultimately, the project suggests that rather than objective fact, photography and text are systems of representation with the potential for both distorting and bringing new insights to reality.