In the undergraduate student laboratory teaching, one of the most common goals is developing improved conceptual understanding linking theory and practice. This study presents a phenomenographic analysis of pharmacy students' conceptions of the theory--practice relation in the laboratory. Through semi-structured interviews with pharmacy students about laboratory teaching and learning, we find that the students conceive the laboratory experience of the theory--practice relation in three qualitatively different ways. They perceive the laboratory experience as either (1) a visual representation of the theory, (2) acting in a multimodal setting supporting theory, or (3) as a complementary perspective in understanding theory. Furthermore, the conceptions were context-dependent and changed over time. We discuss how these three different perspectives may affect the students' learning outcomes and suggest how teachers can accommodate the perspectives in their teaching.