In the preparations for each new Sonsbeek exhibition, the question arises as to how the art should be accommodated in the park. Like her predecessor Saskia Bos, American curator Valery Smith develops her own strategy for Sonsbeek 93. First, she chooses to include the city center and areas on the outskirts of Arnhem, in addition to the park. These three rings are depicted in the logo of sonsbeek '93. Smith's ideas can be summarized with the words identity, public domain, and process.        

Seventy-three artists from all over the world are commissioned to create site-specific works of art. Smith invites them to critically examine the identity of a certain location, if possible in relation to its residents. Central questions are: how are public spaces designed? How do they function? Who uses them? On the one hand, this results in mysterious artworks, such as Michael Asher's project with twenty-four text boards on tree stumps in Park Sonsbeek. On the other hand, there are provocative artworks. A good example is Marc Quinn's 12% Proof (1993), also known as 'The Pisser.' This image of a man with an erection in a telephone booth next to the Koepel church is a crowd pleaser. At the same time, it is also defaced and vandalized. It makes one wonder about the public nature of the space around the church. Finally, sonsbeek '93 can be seen as a process. Many artworks are not about the end product, but about the process that precedes it, or the reaction they provoke. This idea is also represented by the catalogue, which only recounts the collaborative process between Smith and the artists. Images of the final artworks are largely absent.                                       

Smith's concept was critically responded to in the media. In retrospect, however, Sonsbeek ‘93 is considered an important exhibition in the development towards a more social art practice. In 2014, Jens Hoffman even considered sonsbeek ‘93 among the fifty most influential exhibitions of the past twenty-five years.