Belligerent — Book Signing & exhibition of works by Jenny Holzer

April 14 - May 2, 2018

Please join us for a book signing event with Jenny Holzer, April 28, 5:00 – 7:00 PM, on occasion of ‘Belligerent’, newly published by Ivorypress as part of their LiberArs series. The publication contains six redacted U.S. government documents that unfold into posters — each page taken from investigations of abuse in military prisons, including handprints gathered during multiple inquiries. The documents are accompanied by an essay by Joshua Craze, who writes: “There is a double violence in the redacted documents that Holzer paints: the violence done to the detainees, meted out in secret, and the violence done to the truth, visible in the redactions of the documents. The truth does not simply disappear, but appears as an absence.”

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Coinciding with the Signing event, Printed Matter also presents an exhibition of works by Holzer, on view through May 2nd. For more than forty years Holzer has presented her astringent ideas, arguments, and sorrows in public places and international exhibitions, including 7 World Trade Center, the Venice Biennale, the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Following the events of 9/11 and during the Bush-era War on Terror, Holzer began incorporating declassified government documents, made public by the Freedom of Information Act, into her repertoire of text-based work. After faithfully reproducing the content and graphic likeness of revealing, then heavily censored US state and military papers, Holzer offers saturated fields of color and gestural markings, inviting viewers to consider the absence of information blocked by redaction. A suite of six aquatint etchings, Conclusion (2016), appropriates pages from two declassified FBI reports: “Threat Assessment of Pro-Khomeini Shiite Activities in the United States,” dated February 24, 1984, details terrorist threats from Iran and Iranian-linked institutions in the United States, and “The Terrorist Threat to the US Homeland: An FBI Assessment,” dated April 15, 2004, provides an overview of foreign and domestic terrorist threats ranging from Sunni extremist groups to white supremacists. Intelligence Community (2017 – 18) uses a 2004 internal FBI report on the virtues of the USA Patriot Act, rendering the vernacular of the original document in graphite and watercolor. The works investigate the look of censorship, and engage with the material and idea of erasure.

An array of T-shirts, postcards, and stickers arranged in the vitrines feature texts written by Holzer, taken from her Truisms (1977 – 79) and Survival (1983 – 85) series. Holzer has used ephemera to deliver content to the public since the 1970s, when she wheat-pasted posters of her Truisms and Inflammatory Essays (1979 – 82) around Lower Manhattan. Her medium, whether formulated as a T-shirt, a plaque, or an LED sign, is writing, and the public presentation is important to her practice.

See here for a selection of available material, or please write to news@printedmatter.org for a full checklist.

Checklist
  1. Jenny Holzer
    Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise Wooden Postcard [Black Text]
    New York, NY: Printed Matter Inc. and J. Holzer
    $20.00
  2. Jenny Holzer
    Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise Sticker
    New York, NY: J. Holzer
    Out of stock
  3. Jenny Holzer
    Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise [Black Text on Cardboard]
    New York, NY: J. Holzer, 2015
    Out of stock
  4. Jenny Holzer
    In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive and You Were Full of Joy Wooden Postcard [Black Text]
    New York, NY: Printed Matter Inc. and J. Holzer
    $20.00
  5. Jenny Holzer
    Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise [Red Text on Cardboard]
    New York, NY: J. Holzer, 2015
    Out of stock
  6. Jenny Holzer
    Hiding Your Motives Is Despicable Sticker
    New York, NY: J. Holzer
    Out of stock
  7. Jenny Holzer
    Expiring for Love is Beautiful But Stupid Wooden Postcard [Red Text]
    New York, NY: Printed Matter Inc. and J. Holzer
    $20.00
  8. Jenny Holzer
    Conclusion yellow
    New York, NY: Jenny Holzer, 2016
    35
    $3,500.00
  9. Jenny Holzer
    Conclusion red
    New York, NY: Jenny Holzer, 2016
    35
    $3,500.00
  10. Jenny Holzer
    Conclusion orange
    New York, NY: Jenny Holzer, 2016
    35
    $3,500.00
  11. Jenny Holzer
    Protect Me From What I Want [Red Text on Cardboard]
    New York, NY: J. Holzer, 2015
    Out of stock
  12. Jenny Holzer
    Conclusion blue
    New York, NY: Jenny Holzer, 2016
    35
    Out of stock
  13. Jenny Holzer
    Conclusion black
    New York, NY: Jenny Holzer, 2016
    35
    Out of stock
  14. Jenny Holzer
    All Things are Delicately Interconnected [Red Text on Cardboard]
    New York, NY: J. Holzer, 2015
    Out of stock
  15. Jenny Holzer
    All Things are Delicately Interconnected [Black Text on Cardboard]
    New York, NY: J. Holzer, 2015
    Out of stock
  16. Jenny Holzer
    All Things Are Delicately Interconnected Wooden Postcard [Red Text]
    New York, NY: Printed Matter Inc. and J. Holzer
    $20.00
  17. Jenny Holzer
    AKA
    New York, NY: Jenny Holzer, 2006
    20/40
    Out of stock
  18. Jenny Holzer
    Conclusion green
    New York, NY: Jenny Holzer, 2016
    35
    $3,500.00
  19. Jenny Holzer
    Murder Has Its Sexual Side Wooden Postcard [Red Text]
    New York, NY: J. Holzer
    size unknown
    Out of stock
  20. Jenny Holzer
    Money Creates Taste Sticker
    New York, NY: J. Holzer
    Out of stock
  21. Jenny Holzer
    Money Creates Taste Wooden Postcard [Black Text]
    New York, NY: Printed Matter Inc. and J. Holzer
    $20.00
  22. Jenny Holzer
    Lack of Charisma Can Be Fatal Sticker
    New York, NY: J. Holzer
    Out of stock
  23. Jenny Holzer
    Raise Boys and Girls the Same Way [Black Text on Cardboard]
    New York, NY: J. Holzer, 2015
    Out of stock
  24. Jenny Holzer
    Raise Boys and Girls the Same Way Sticker
    New York, NY: J. Holzer
    Out of stock
  25. Jenny Holzer
    Torture Is Barbaric Sticker
    New York, NY: J. Holzer
    Out of stock
  26. Jenny Holzer
    The Future Is Stupid Sticker
    New York, NY: J. Holzer
    Out of stock
  27. Jenny Holzer
    Private Property Created Crime Sticker
    New York, NY: J. Holzer
    Out of stock
  28. Jenny Holzer
    Jenny Holzer Sticker Sheet [Set of 9]
    New York, NY: J. Holzer
    Out of stock
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