All of us are the centers of our worlds, so as can be expected, self-referentiality is oft a subject of art. But it is not an easy thing to get right. Generally its employment is boring and cheap — as it’s easy to feel that one’s own thoughts directly transcribed will retain the same significance of centrality that they have in our heads. But centrality when de-centered is no longer central. When done right though, that is, when an artist can transubstantiate the personal into something like abstract remove, it can transcend the specificity of our general personhood — and truly reach the viewer — like with a Joseph Beuys or a Nan Goldin or here like with Ian Waelder.