While The Sideshow duplicates an appealing carnival atmosphere, it has also received critical recognition as an art installation that playfully questions the way femininity has been constructed in Western culture over the last century. As The Sideshow explores social constructs, simulations of the feminine and power relationships, it also pokes fun at the institution of the museum and its complicity in the exploitation of people for the sake of art. Read what critics have been saying about Pamela Joseph's The Sideshow of the Absurd: “Pamela Joseph explores the territory of tabloid superstitions and popular beliefs in a series of elaborately staged, astonishingly energetic installations. The results are wildly entertaining… [The Sideshow of the Absurd] is fun, smart, and often hilarious.” —Christine Biederman, The Dallas Observer, October 10-16, 2002. “Part deconstruction of and part homage to the iconic grotesqueries that lurked in the margins of places like Coney Island.” —J. Gluckstern, Boulder Sunday Camera, February 4, 2001. “This funky, carnivallesque installation is well worth a visit.” —Steven Robert Allen, Albuquerque Alibi, January 2-9, 2002. “Look closely, because in this show... the truly terrifying implications are the aspects that cannot be confined to a carnival tent. The fragmented bodies suggest a whole world of gendered spectacle. When Joseph presents the non-normative as aspects of the female body, the comforting freak show us/them dichotomy fades. As for the larger–than–life mechanized lady who continuously works the sword in and out of her throat, the real mechanism behind “The Lady Swordswallower”—and other such “exhibits”—is our own relentless curiosity.” —Kristie Betts, Boulder Weekly, January 25, 2001. “Parents of those of tender age be warned: The bondage theme, considerable attention given to mutilation and some lewd messages in “The Scrim Room” are cause to revisit your approach to art education before exposing your children.” —Shelley Sepiol, Northern Indiana Post–Tribune, July, 2001. “Brilliant…humorous and silly. Artist Pamela Joseph has shocked us into paying attention.” —Anna Angeli, New Mexico Daily Lobo, December 10-14, 2001. Continue here to read more about Pamela Joseph's Sideshow of the Absurd... Opening at the Erie Art Museum, June 29, 2002. Opening at the Gallery 101 Walsh, January 13, 2005.