Sometime ago we were doing nothing special, sitting at a pavement café on Shaftesbury Avenue in Covent Garden, enjoying the sun. A figure strolled by, stopped, turned and said:
“Hi! I haven’t seen you two for a long time … how are you, what have you been doing?”
“We’re fine … we’ve withdrawn from the art world …”
“But you can’t!” exclaimed Simon Patterson, shaking his head “it’s like the mafia … once you’re in you can never get out!”
He walked on, laughing to himself.

A few months later, we were walking the dog around Lincoln’s Inn Fields in Bloomsbury when we bumped into Ruth MacClennan who asked how we were and what Art in Ruins was up to.
“We’re fine … we’ve suspended Art in Ruins’ activities” we said.
“But you can’t retire … artists don’t get a pension” she replied.

Sometime the following year we bumped into Gavin Turk at Euston Station who asked:
“What is Art in Ruins up to?”
“Nothing … ” we replied
“Brilliant! … re-making the silence of Marcel Duchamp!”