Dodd et. al. describe the exhibition as follows:

'Designed by Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir and Mark Wilson, and titled Animal Matters, the exhibit addressed some of the diverse and often problematic methods of representing animals that have developed since the eighteenth century. Including drawings, photographs, sculptures, motion pictures, preserved animal bodies, and scientific instruments, it sought not merely to represent animals, but to present some of the ways in which animals are themselves represented - to draw attention to representational practices as they manifest across a range of sites and contexts, including the art gallery itself.

The institutional sites and spatial contexts examined by authors in the present volume served as a preliminary point of departure for the design of the Animal Matters exhibit. In some cases, such as zoos and natural history museums, the materiality of the animal was foregrounded and privileged to emphasize how it could come to define the animal itself, even when enclosure fences, Plexiglas covers, or glass cases fram human interactions with it. In other instances, such as illustrations and photography, the animal's presence was interpreted as once more one dimensional and more spectral.' (4)