Inflammatory Essays

 

Written in between 1979 and 1982 and printed in 2010, Jenny Holzer’s “Inflammatory Essays” employ her so-called “truisms," gleaned from popular ideas and ideologies. Rather than being projected in public spaces or casting them aglow in LED, here sentences form individual “essays.” Originally pasted around New York City, many of the texts reveal the polemical tone of manifestos, as they are oftentimes excerpted from speeches. Posted anonymously, the texts become relatively open signs, appl...