Renate Bertlmann’s 'Five Figures '(1974) is part of series of works on paper the artist made between 1974 and 1977 on the “wheelchair struggle”. Inspired by Thomas Bernhard’s 'A Party for Boris,' the figures are understood to be characters from the play (guests from the Home for Cripples, which attend the party for Boris).

The “wheelchair struggle” becomes a clear thematization of the battle of the sexes, with allusion to gender done in the most abstract and delicate way, either through a gentle swelling of the genital region, or the colour pink.