With the store dummy's head settled into position, the hat pulled low, there was suddenly another human being in the room.

Just like one of those store dummies.

He collected folk art and was partial to corny Americana: dolls, showgirls, store dummies, clowns.

If store dummies function as substitutes for humans, Ms. Beecroft challenges humans to act like mannequins in her performance art.

So subtly does Ms. Hunter use light that it is quite a shock to find her lapsing into photographic cliche by including store dummies in some pictures.

These gave willful force to images like store dummies, coagulating clouds, the curve of a servant girl's leg, the oppressive miasma of small-town boredom.

They were like store dummies arranged in the act of love.

"The coat, the dress and the necklace have reappeared on the store dummy," op Owen said.

His muscles coiled, and Kevin threw himself at the hated figure like a wild bull, knocking Monique out of the way like a store dummy.

And he sat now with the match in one hand, the cigarette in the other, still as a store dummy, staring at the vampire.