In the 1980s, Thomas Hirschhorn came to Paris with the will to take part in the 'Grapus'-collective as graphic designer, because he was impressed by the way their graphic work was also politically engaged. Although he and the Grapus people were good friends, working with them wasn't what he wanted to do. He didn't want to work for clients, but wanted to create for his own. During the long years that followed, he developed his own visual research based on the principle of Collage. In the beginning, he claimed these as 'Graphic design from myself,' but was not more successful until he decided to clearly position his Collage-work in the field of art and history of art.