"By its own fascinating force, ugliness, which in the real repeats its archipelic forms, confronts the artist like a challenge : be it physical, moral, social or existential, the artist does not stop at exposing it, identifying it, or denouncing it; he wants to tame it—still better, to transfigure it : the repulsive becomes attractive, the unlivable livable, the revolting appealing, the injury a blessing."

— Michel Ribon, L'Archipel de la laideur: Essai sur l'art et la laideur
(Paris : Kimé, 1995)