Tracey Emin at the 2007 Venice Biennale

Tracey Emin standing in front of one of her works at yesterday's unveiling. "We're Middle-aged British Artists now," she said. Photograph: David Levene

The last female artist to represent Britain at the Biennale was the then-nearly-unknown Rachel Whiteread, whose work also appeared alongside Emin's in the ground-breaking Saatchi Sensation exhibition of 1997 Photograph: David Levene

The entrance to the British pavilion, with work by Emin on the right Photograph: David Levene

A work from the series entitled Abortion Watercolours, executed in 1990 but never before displayed Photograph: David Levene

More from the Abortion Watercolours series, which Emin describes as the most emotional work in the show Photograph: David Levene

Another Abortion Watercolour, this time in black-and-white Photograph: David Levene

In another room, Emin is displaying sculptural work as part of the exhibition Photograph: David Levene

Another view of the same room. Half of the works on display have been put on reserve by New York's MoMA, with a view to purchasing them; Emin has said she will keep the other half. Photograph: David Levene