Sybille ran a discotheque with her

friends. One night a couple of armed

men came in and wanted to cause

trouble. Sybille´s friends asked them

to leave. They said they would return

with reinforcements. When they did,

Sybille and her friends escaped out of

the back door, over the yard and the

wall at the back. The wall had glass

fragments embedded in it. Sybille cut

her finger badly going over. She failed

to treat it because of a fear of

doctors. It became gangrenous, so

she cut it off with a knife on her

kitchen table. A gallery came to hear

of the story and asked her to allow

them to encase her finger in liquid

plastic and display it in their window.

Sybille agreed, with the condition that

the finger be restored to her body

upon her death.

Berlin 1984. next