This book does not illustrate the exhibition Stimuli (held at Witte de With, November 1999 – February 2000), but offers a path through its motivations and phantasmagorias.

Conceived by Bartomeu Marí – director of Witte de With – and Karel Schampers – (then) senior curator modern art at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen – the exhibition unfolds around the notions of hypnosis and ecstasy. Delivering an anti-formalist reading of art, Stimuli emphasizes physical sensation as the instigator and fundamental reason of art at the close of the twentieth century.