ABSTRACT
Starting with a quote from Erasmus’ The Praise of Folly, this chapter delineates the ways that sham ruins are both distinguishable and indistinguishable from actual ruins, as well as the consequences of both. The main example used is the artist Sturtevant and her replications of work from mainly male artists such as Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. This work is considered a sham ruin because although it references the actual work, it never means to function like it. The artist’s addressing the “total structure” of the work of others, rather than just individual aspects such as sex and class, is then connected to Graham Harman’s reading of “self-contained objects” in the art world as well as Levi Bryant’s reading of the end of the world.
