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"At the most general, symmetry is the rule and asymmetry is the exception. An artist or an architect can, of course, use both or use only asymmetry, but I long ago reached an agreement with what I consider the primary condition: art, for myself, and architecture for everyone, should always be symmetrical except for a good reason... The primacy of symmetry in art and architecture is not very definitive or restrictive because there are so many kinds, some very close to asymmetry, such as some of the numerical progressions that I use. Absolute symmetry is marvelous and it's also marvelous when symmetry itself allows variation, when the logic of the situation causes or allows an approach to symmetry. For example, the position to the rear of an apse doesn't seem as asymmetrical because it can only be there or to the front. The absent position is present by implication."

Publication excerpt from Symmetry by Donald Judd, in Donald Judd: Prints and Works in Editions, edited by Jörg Schellmann and Mariette Josephus Jitta.