‘The Incomplete Truth’ was first exhibited at ‘Beyond Belief’, a major solo show of new Hirst works held across both White Cube Hoxton Square and Mason’s Yard, London, in 2007. The formaldehyde-preserved dove encapsulates a central concern of the ‘Natural History’ works: “That failure of trying so hard to do something that you destroy the thing that you’re trying to preserve”.[1]

The work is similar to another formaldehyde work ‘The Inescapable Truth’ (2005), in which a human skull is positioned at the base of a tank directly beneath the suspended body of the bird.