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 foldout 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 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.

Jenny Holzer

Princeton University Press, 2024

14 X 12 cm, 32 pages