Bill Viola sets up contrasts in his work as well. The three projections that make up City of Man (1989) are reminiscent of panels in a Renaissance altarpiece predella, suggesting such venerable themes as the three ages of life or the triad of heaven, purgatory, and hell. Unlike the art-historical precedents his work suggests, however, Viola offers no clear-cut hierarchy or progression among these images, merely their juxtaposition, which is left to the viewer to interpret.

			 - Jon Ippolito, Exhibition Coordinator