"A collage band, irregularly contoured and 2,69 meters long, whose height varies from a few centimeters to 19 centimeters, is (beside Agnes Richter's Jacket) one of the treasures of the collection. It is made of boundless small square pieces of paper glued together, so that a geometric structure sustains a rather amorphous surface.
This complex and intrinsically appealing image carrier with small pictures cut out from magazines is overcollaged on both sides and graphically belabored with coating paint, pencil and drawing ink.
The graphic elements are primarily abstract and ornamental, whereby the regulative grid recurs in the shape of a graticule.
But here and there a delicate childish face (almost disappearing into the background) glances at us suddenly, or we discover the fine structure of the fern-like plant.
Some spots drown in rose-milky colourfulness, while others are worked through clearly.
Overall, the wonderfully soft, flowing nature of the band reminds one of a run-down southern façade whose past left its pastel traces in the crumbling layers of plaster.
This band extends the time, it finds itself infinitely extendable on both ends -- music made of paper.
To a great extent, stratification and opening with a high degree of abstraction and only a few figurative allusions appear broadly modern to us.
This "time band" is dated around 1890 and is made in the Vienna Psychiatric Asylum Oberdöbling before the official art discovered techniques of collage -- created by a woman whose only first surname letters are known -- St. and a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
(From: Inge Jádi, "Überlebenskunst weiblich " ("The Art of Female Survival").
In: Silke Leopold, Agnes Speck (Eds.), Hysterie und Wahnsinn (Hysteria and Insanity), Wunderhorn, Heidelberg 2000. Translation by Irina Karamarkovic)