In 2018 Gober debuted a new body of work in his exhibition “Tick Tock” at Matthew Marks Gallery. In these wall-mounted sculptures, which take the form of shadow boxes, Gober revisits motifs and imagery he has deployed throughout his career. Discussing the exhibition, curator Helen Molesworth wrote, “These boxes are some of Gober’s most profoundly personal works to date (and this within a highly personal oeuvre); their intimate scale amplifies their concentrated domestic sensibility.”

Some of Gober’s earliest sculptures took the form of dollhouses, and Arms Bed Apple continues this self-reflexive exploration on a similarly intimate scale. The background of the vitrine is covered in a printed fabric originally created for the sculpture Chair with Pipe (1994–1995). It depicts Gober’s own arms and legs in a lattice-like configuration, a blue ribbon winding between the limbs. Placed on the bottom of the vitrine is a small-scale rendition of Untitled (1986), a sculpture of a bed in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A precisely produced green apple, complete with a hand-painted sticker, appears to float in the center of the tableau.