I think that "deep readings" of museums as a class, as signs
          and signifiers, and all of that kind of jargon, is a very
          fruitful endeavor. I work at a botanical garden, and have
          been managing an NEH planning grant where I've had the
          luxury of thinking and reading about public and private
          gardens along the same lines.
 
          There are two people to whom I would refer you: the first, a
          writer about gardens, is John Dixon Hunt, who was recently
          appointed to run the Landscape Design program at U of P. He
          contributed a fascinating article to a book called Denatured
          Visions, published by MOMA to a accompany an exhibit of the
          same name.
 
          The second person is a professor at the Graduate Center at
          City College, Bill Kelly. He is working on a book about the
          creation of both the Zoo and the Natural History Museums in
          NYC, and the meanings and contexts of these undertakings.
 
          I'm sure there is much more of this type of work about art
          museums, since they attract more culturally advanced (or
          modish, depending on your point of view), crowd (you don't
          see many of the lower east side kids in black at the Garden
          or Zoo).
 
          Anyway, the discussion you suggest is very worthwhile, and
          hasn't really been already thrashed through since I've been
          on the list.
 
          I'm always up for this kind of speculative stuff...
 
          Eric Siegel
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