Holzer-isms
Artist's Edition
Holzer-isms: Artist’s Edition presents a selection of artist Jenny Holzer’s Truisms (1977-79) — subtly subversive declarations such as ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE — on six fold-out posters designed by the artist.
Important and influential works of word-art, Truisms are single-sentence statements resembling existing aphorisms, maxims, and clichés. By distilling difficult and contentious ideas into seemingly straightforward statements of fact, they examine the social construction of beliefs, mores, and truths. First displayed on anonymous street posters pasted throughout downtown Manhattan, they have since appeared on T-shirts, hats, electronic signs, stone floors, and benches.
The stunning posters in Holzer-isms: Artist’s Edition come in a special cloth-covered, foil-stamped box, which also features a booklet containing an introduction to Truisms, a biography of Holzer, and a brief chronology of her career. The result is a unique way to experience Holzer’s powerful and provocative word-based art.
Holzer-isms contains:
- Six 21.5” wide × 31.5” high (55 cm × 80 cm) foldout posters
- A booklet featuring an introduction, a biography of Holzer, and a brief chronology of her career
Jenny Holzer has presented her astringent ideas, arguments, and sorrows in public places and international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale, the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Her medium, whether a T-shirt, plaque, or LED sign, is writing, and the public dimension is integral to the work. Starting in the 1970s with her New York City street posters and continuing through her light projections on landscape and architecture, her practice has rivaled ignorance and violence with humour and kindness.
Larry Warsh has been active in the art world for more than thirty years as a publisher and artist-collaborator. He is the editor of many books, including The Notebooks of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Warhol-isms, Basquiat-isms, and Weiwei-isms (all Princeton).
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