The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

In 1983 Lenkiewicz exhibited Project 16. This project attempted to survey as wide a range as possible of human activities relating to sexual behaviour. He attempted to do this seriously without attention to the law. As the show was presented he was asked by the Council and the Police to warn visitors, "Local Authority regard this project as unsuitable for those under eighteen, this is not the painter's opinion". It seemed extraordinary to Lenkiewicz that sexual proclivities active all day and all night in the private lives of the complainees should become an issue in law. The policeman who removed a painting on masturbation admitted that he masturbated. The Council representative who restricted imagery connected with prostitution was friendly with the prostitutes. Heterosexual behaviour, homosexual behaviour, auto-erotic behaviour, bestiality, even necrophilia are commonplace in our society and most societies, and characterise more than 50% of all human entertainments. It is interesting that when the authorities visited the Exhibition to consider closure, the paedophilia section went entirely unnoticed. The local reaction to the project was of far greater interest and stimulation in Lenkiewicz's view than the project itself and much more revelatory.

The project attempted to demonstrate that there was no end to human creativity, that loneliness combined with human passion could animate a hoover to far more gratifying potentials than one's wife. The project seemed to indicate that all sexual behaviour was auto-erotic, from marriage partners to strangers' underwear. It seemed an inherent and terrible isolation lay just under the surface of some of the most powerful desires to consult with and connect to the world around us. Auto-erotic activity finds itself its own reward, such as it is. It has little to do with the subtler aspects of human relationships and claims for the credibility of 'the other'.