"[1] Rather than designing new art objects, Asher typically altered the existing environment, by repositioning or removing artworks, walls, facades, etc.
[2] Cited by numerous successful artists as an important influence in their development, Asher's teaching has been described by British journalist Sarah Thornton as his "most influential" work.
[6] He began teaching at the California Institute of the Arts in 1973,[6] along with other influential artist-professors like John Baldessari, Judy Chicago and Allan Kaprow.
Thornton describes the Crit as a "rite of passage" for the students and as the artist's "most influential" work - "an institutional critique that reveals the limits of the rest of the curriculum."
His work in the late 1960s and early 1970s consisted of dividing up gallery spaces using partition walls and curtains, and designing environments that reflected or absorbed sound.
[10] In 1969, for the group show “Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials” at the Whitney Museum of American Art, he concealed a blower above a door to create a slab of air that visitors passed through when they moved from one gallery to the next.
Architectural floor plans for those 44 exhibitions, captioned with the title and dates of each one, are displayed in a small gallery at the show's entrance, providing a key to what visitors are about to see.
[18] In the mid-1970s, after a dispute with gallery dealer, Heiner Friedrich, Asher decided to use contractual agreements in order to control the production, dissemination and ownership of his art projects.