Cross belongs to Objects of Desire III, the third sub series of Charlesworth's landmark five part cycle made between 1983 and 1988, which focused on themes of religion and spirituality. Working from appropriated source material, images extracted from books, magazines, and archaeological publications, she photographed the crucifix against a field of saturated red, printing it in Cibachrome and presenting it within a custom lacquered frame that precisely matches the background color, so that frame and image become a single unified object. The blazing red field simultaneously evokes devotion, desire, danger, and the language of commercial advertising: Charlesworth's central argument was that these registers are not distinct but deeply entangled, that the image of sacred objects and the imagery of consumer culture speak the same visual grammar. Objects of Desire III uses a standard format of thirty by forty inches across all works in the sub series, and the complete series is held in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, among many other major institutions.