Together with a leather box inscribed 'Action N°23. Volume IX, 1973', used to hold the photographs and a complete set of 75 colour slides documenting the action, this copy of 'Action Psyche' is the definitive manifestation of Pane’s most important action. In the work, the artist self-inflicted wounds above her eyelashes to stimulate tears of blood, and then engraved her belly.

This is the definitive manifestation of Gina Pane’s most important action, Action Psyche. Comprising 25 vintage colour photographs, together with a complete set of 75 colour slides documenting the action, it illustrates the intricacies of Pane’s carefully planned performances, where nothing is left to chance or is without meaning.

In this work, which culminates with the artist self-inflicting wounds above her eyelashes to stimulate tears of blood, and then cutting a crucifix form on her belly, Pane demonstrates the tenuous boundary between life and death.

Pane is perhaps the most influential body and performance artist of the 1970s and 80s, using her body as a media, she flouts the limits of her own physical threshold for pain and endurance.