British artist Gillian Wearing, winner of the 1997 Turner Prize, uses photography and video to produce an honest portrait of the complexities of contemporary life. Borrowing from popular culture, her work is both disturbing and confessional. In 1993 she began the acclaimed series Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants them to say, in which random passers-by are photographed holding messages of their own choosing, such as the mild-mannered young businessman
