Renate Bertlmann’s 'Bridegroom, Bride & Cardinal' (1975) is a set of three works on paper engaging with the artist’s motif of the bride in a wheelchair, which was originally developed as a response to the artist’s viewing of Thomas Bernhard’s play 'A Party for Boris'.

The bridegroom and cardinal, metaphors of secular and then religious patriarchy, are presented as faceless and mannequin-like figures, flanking the bride in her “bridal carriage” (wheelchair). The interlocking rings of the marriage symbol, as well as gendered male and female symbols, float above the bride and groom with the divine power of the Cardinal represented by his own crucifix as a form of a halo.