Detail from 'Quinter's Thought Trap'

Eric Quinter was a well-known butterfly collector, and it is his actual collection that formed the nucleus for the larger installation of which this piece is a part. The Quinter that Ostrander created is, however, a fictional character into whose "thought trap" we enter. The trap is the way his collection seems to present complete knowledge, yet is really only a reflection of human understanding. Five butterflies trapped in a steel case each rotate at a different rate either clockwise or counter clockwise. The insects move independently of each other, but not in their natural movement. The mechanical confounds the instinctive.

In 1997, Tasha Ostrander created an installation for the museum called Quinter's Thought Trap, the first in a series of "laboratory" installations. Ostrander's project used as its point of departure the research of Eric Quinter, an entomologist with the American Museum of Natural History who has studied moths, their navigational abilities, and their attraction to light for four decades. Though Quinter is a real person, Ostrander's project transformed him into a fictional character into whose laboratory we as visitors entered. The butterfly box was one component of Quinter's Thought Trap. Made with real butterflies that move by virtue of a hidden clock motor, the steel butterfly box references the capture, study and categorization of a specimen.