Book Description

Now in Paperback~Jenny Holzer gained widespread recognition when texts from her Truisms series appeared on a vast electronic advertising board overlooking Times Square. Throughout her career, Holzer has intrigued audiences by placing her provocative messages in unexpected contexts, including posters, metal plaques, stone benches, electronic signs, television spots and Web sites. Her canny melding of the mediums of mass culture with an unadorned, emphatic language is perfectly attuned to an age of advertising slogans, headlines and sound bites. Yet despite the very public nature of much of her work, Holzer has also created more intimate pieces for display in galleries and museums. Her stunning installation at the 1990 Venice Biennale was awarded first prize and brought the artist international acclaim, proving that Holzer's art is equally compelling wherever it is shown--in a setting calculated to reach the masses or in the most rarefied art spaces. This book features a complete collection of the artist's writings, up to and including her 1996 text for a monument in Erlauf, Austria, accompanied by color photography of the entire range of her installations and projects. In an insightful essay and a lively interview with the artist, Diane Waldman traces the history of Holzer's series of writings and the varied environments in which they have appeared. The volume is rounded off with a chronology, exhibition history and bibliography. Essays by Diane Waldman and Jenny Holzer. Paperback, 9.5 x 11 in./144 pgs / 64 color 17 BW0 duotone 0 ~ Item D20391 ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Jenny Holzer- Protect me from what I can't see
Have you ever stopped to think how many times we are bombarded by truisms everyday? Get this book and you will get a clue. In the Truisms series over exposure to banality reveals how numbed out we all are. Take a cliche like "Children are the hope to the future" and place beside "Children are the most cruel of all". We say and repeat these truisms but do we really realize that they are empty in themselves ? Do we perceive the contradictions ? How we mold reality to suit our needs ? Truisms sooth us with the cushioned feeling of the "generally accepted truth". Jenny Holzer literally splashes intimate thoughts, truisms, activist slogans over the landscape. These truths, half-truths and huge lies stare out at us in billboards, park benches like a conscience made physical. This is art made on the very border of reality and language.

Fantastic coverage of a fantastic artist.
The book listed on this page, a monograph on Jenny Holzer by Phaidon Press, is fabulous. It contains information on Holzer's wide and influential art career, from her Truisms posters of the 'seventies to her electronic LED signs, carved stone benches, and virtual art pieces of the 'nineties.

This book is also unique, within the Holzer bibliography, because of the "Artist's Choice" section where Holzer provides excerpts from books and writings that have influenced her, along with explanations of why she's moved by them.

If you're interested in modern art, or women artists, this is a must-read ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Artforum International, published by Artforum International Magazine, Inc. on April 1, 2003. The length of the article is 2205 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Jenny Holzer talks to Steven Henry Madoff. ('80s Then).(Interview)(Biography)
Publication: Artforum International (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2003
Publisher: Artforum International Magazine, Inc.
Volume: 41Issue: 8Page: 82(3)

Article Type: Interview, Biography

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more