But while many of us find the idea of an artist's studio fascinating, there is also a perception that the art world itself exists in a studio-like ivory tower. A major exhibition on the subject of the studio at Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane is an example of this tendency. Indeed, it reveals how an exhibition can fail to engage with the general public if it is wrapped up in its own theoretical cocoon.

The Hugh Lane is a particularly suitable location for the exhibition, considering the permanent presence of the Francis Bacon studio.

Simply entitled The Studio, it includes work from the 1960s to the present day by internationally renowned artists such as Andy Warhol, Martin Kippenberger, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman and Dieter Roth. Each of the artists deal with the idea and function of the studio, so the focus is inevitably on self-reflexive, conceptual works that demonstrate a preoccupation with the process of creating art.

The curators, Jens Hoffmann and Christina Kennedy, approach the exhibition as if it were a critical analysis of the idea of the studio.

They attempt to address what it really means for a contemporary artist to work in a studio and in doing so they do raise some interesting questions. What effect, for example, does a studio have upon the process of creating an artwork?

As art has become less reliant on traditional skills in, say, painting and sculpture, how has the function of the studio changed?

And these days, do artists dealing in conceptual, often ephemeral work, even need a traditional studio?

The first work the visitor encounters is a site-specific installation by Daniel Buren, created insitu rather than in a studio. He has covered the windows of the gallery with blue, green, yellow and striped filters which transform the space with coloured light. Indeed, Buren's 1970s essay, 'The Function of the Studio', is a touchstone for the exhibition. In it, he argued that removing art from the studio to the gallery dislocates it from its original context and meaning.

Frances Stark responds to Buren's essay in a series entitled The Unspeakable Compromise of the Portable Work of Art. Each work in the series is accompanied by documentation which details its genesis and how to maintain and hang it, written in an intimate, anecdotal style. This strategy is a selfconsciously inadequate attempt to circumvent the loss of context an artwork suffers when it leaves the studio.

At the other end of the scale from Stark's heartfelt efforts is Paul McCarthy's grotesque film, Painter, a caustic send-up of the stereotype of male creative genius.

He is dressed up as a buffoon painter with ridiculous outsize nose and hands, and bumbles around a mock-up studio. It is purposely distasteful and disturbing, ending with art collectors sniffing his behind.

Meanwhile, recordings from Andy Warhol's 'Factory', with clips of David Bowie, Edie Sedgwick and Lou Reed, depict his studio as a gathering place and industrialised workspace in which art could be mass-produced.

For other artists, the actual studio forms the artwork. Urs Fischer liked his studio in London so much that when he was returning to Switzerland, he had it transported back with him. He now proclaims this portable studio, which is currently on display at the Hugh Lane, to be an artwork.

Andrew Grassie, meanwhile, has set up a mock studio in the Hugh Lane, as has Martha Rosler, whose space resembles an office more than a paint-splattered room.

Isa Genzken has yet another take on the theme. A series of photographs depicts her wandering around her "studio": Cologne Cathedral.

Bruce Nauman, meanwhile, filmed his cat and some mice in his studio at night, thus creating an artwork in the studio, but without his presence.

The exhibition, while an interesting exposition of the multifaceted theoretical arguments surrounding the idea of the studio, feels almost like an academic essay, with the artworks used to illustrate various points. I sense that many visitors will feel somewhat alienated by 'The Studio', which is to an extent bogged down by the weight of academicism.

On that note, it might be worth mentioning another major show that has just opened in Dublin. An exhibition in the New Galleries at Imma, which features a raft of famous international artists, is in the running for the most nonsensical and pretentious title of the year: . all hawaii eNtrees / luNar reGGae. There is, apparently, a 'logical' reason for the name: it is an anagram of 'New Galleries' in Irish and English.

And people wonder why contemporary art is seen as elitist and alienating?