This exhibition, organized by me and curated by the artist Richard Grayson, considered the work of fifteen international artists and groups whose practices centre on the creation of secret worlds, or the exposure of hidden facts and images. Work by key figures of Modern art, contemporary artists (including Sophie Calle, Roberto Cuoghi, Susan Hiller, Tehching Hsieh, Katarzyna Josefowicz, Joachim Koester, Paul Etiennne Lincoln, Mike Nelson, The Speculative Archive and Jeffrey Vallance) and 'outsiders' together addressed numerous aspects of secrecy: magic, alchemy, sexuality, dreams, religion, political conspiracy, assumed identity and the covert working of the State

By positioning Kurt Schwitters' Merzbauten alongside work by 'outsider' and contemporary artists within a discourse of secrecy and concealment, A Secret Service provoked new and alternative readings and narratives for Modern, contemporary and non-Western art. The exhibition included a selection of 15 works by Henry Darger, the most substantial showing of Darger's work in the UK to date. It also introduced Mark Lombardi, a key figure of contemporary American art, to UK audiences for the first time.

The exhibition was accompanied by a 120-page publication, A Secret Service: Art Compulsion, Concealment, (Hayward Gallery Touring, 2006) designed by Fraser Muggeridge. My essay, 'Outside in and Front to Back,' developed new readings around ideas of concealment and secrecy in Schwitters' Merzbauten and Marcel Duchamp's Etant Donnes.

The research for the exhibition was carried out (where possible) in consultation with the artists involved and with Doctor Karin Orchard, an internationally renowned Schwitters scholar at the Sprengel Museum in Hannover; Lucy Whetstone, the Curator at the Hatton Gallery, University of Newcastle; Kiyoko Lerner, executor of the Darger estate, Jacques Mercier, specialist in Ethiopian talismanic art; Dr Thomas Roeske, Director of the Prinzhorn Museum; and Roger Cardinal a leading expert in 'outsider' art.

The exhibition opened at the Hatton Gallery, University of Newcastle in September 2006 and toured to the De la Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea and the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester.