Holzer-isms: Artist's Edition

(Hardback)

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Description

A boxed collection of Jenny Holzers renowned Truisms

Jenny Holzers Truisms (197779), comprising over 250 single-sentence declarations, were written to resemble existing aphorisms, maxims, and clichs. Each sentence distills difficult and contentious ideas into a seemingly straightforward statement of fact. Privileging no single viewpoint, the Truisms examine the social construction of beliefs, mores, and truths. Arranged in alphabetical order, Truisms were first shown on anonymous street posters pasted throughout downtown Manhattan, and they have since appeared on T-shirts, hats, electronic signs, stone floors, and benches.

Holzer-isms presents a collection of these iconic phrases in a special form: a cloth-covered, foil-stamped box containing six folded posters designed by Holzer, each featuring a selection of Truisms, accompanied by a booklet with an introduction, biography, and chronology. The result is a beautifully designed object that offers a new way to experience Holzers powerful and provocative text-based art.

Author Bio

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 humor 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).