About the Work
Jenny Holzer’s Truisms, which are perhaps her best known body of work, are comprised of a series of statements and aphorisms presented in a variety of different contexts—projected on walls, flashing in LED displays, carved onto marble benches, or imprinted on steel plaques.
IF YOU AREN'T POLITICAL YOUR PERSONAL LIFE SHOULD BE EXEMPLARY is an example of a truism that characterizes Holzer’s desire to foment debate with her work. By goading viewers to consider whether or not they are “political,” Holzer forces us to reconsider whether it’s possible, in a world ripped apart by unrest, war, revolution, and religious extremism, to rise above being mired in human frailty.
About the Artist
Jenny Holzer is an American conceptual artist best known for her text-based works, which are constructed from “truisms” such as “abuse of power comes as no surprise” and “protect me from what I want.” By experimenting with the use of words visually displayed in public spaces, Holzer is able to stimulate public discussions about violence, sexuality, oppression, human rights, feminism, power, war, and death. Starting with street posters, Holzer’s practice has come to incorporate LED screens that run with stock-ticker-like texts, painted signs, plaques, photographs, sound, video, and the Internet.
Until 1993, Holzer wrote her own texts, after which she began to appropriate texts by Polish Nobel laureate Wislawa Szymborska, and other champions of human rights, including Elfriede Jelinek, Fadhil Al-Azawi, Yehuda Amichai, and Mahmoud Darwish. Recent works include I Was in Baghdad Ochre Fade (2007), a series of oil on linen transcriptions of torture documents from the Iraq War; Redaction Paintings (2009), which were created using recently released classified memos with texts blacked out by censors; and an installation in the lobby of 7 World Trade Center. In 1990, she was the first woman to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale, where she won the Golden Lion for the best artist.
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