Richard Prince's "Nurse Paintings" exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in 2006 marked a significant moment in his career. The series, which Prince began in the early 2000s, reinterprets the covers of mid-20th-century pulp romance novels, particularly those centered around the figure of the nurse. These works reflect Prince’s ongoing exploration of American pop culture and its intersections with gender, identity, and fetishism.

The paintings feature nurses in stereotypical white uniforms and caps, often with their faces partially obscured by surgical masks, lending an air of anonymity and detachment. This visual motif emphasizes the nurses' roles as both caregivers and objects of fantasy. Prince's technique involved digitally scanning the original book covers, then projecting and printing them onto canvases. He would overlay the printed images with expressive strokes of color, blending elements of Abstract Expressionism with pop culture iconography.

The exhibition at Gagosian highlighted the dualities inherent in Prince's work—high art versus low culture, masculine versus feminine. The nurse paintings are imbued with a sense of irony, critiquing the performative and often exaggerated sexual tropes found in pulp fiction while also celebrating the aesthetic appeal of these mass-produced images. By appropriating and transforming these covers, Prince questions notions of originality and authorship in contemporary art.

The reception of the "Nurse Paintings" was mixed but largely positive, with critics noting the series' provocative blend of nostalgia and critique. The paintings' vibrant, layered compositions and their thematic depth solidified Prince's reputation as a keen observer of American cultural myths and their visual representations.

Overall, the 2006 exhibition at Gagosian Gallery was a pivotal showcase of Richard Prince's ability to meld popular imagery with fine art, continuing his legacy of challenging artistic conventions and exploring the complexities of identity and desire within American culture​ (Skarstedt)​​ (Arcana Books)​​ (theartwolf)​.