AbstractLet Q be a finite acyclic quiver, let J be an ideal of kQ generated by all arrows in Q, and let A be a finite-dimensional k-algebra. The category of all finite-dimensional representations of (Q, J2) over A is denoted by rep(Q, J2, A). In this paper, we introduce the category exa(Q, J2, A), which is a subcategory of rep (Q, J2, A) of all exact representations. The main result of this paper explicitly describes the Gorenstein-projective representations in rep(Q, J2, A), via the exact representations plus an extra condition. As a corollary, A is a self-injective algebra if and only if the Gorensteinprojective representations are exactly the exact representations of (Q, J2) over A.