A biography for Jenny Holzerhasn’t been written yet.
“Company makes my day.”
“Lack of charisma can be fatal.”
“I used language because I wanted to offer content that people - not necessarily art people - could understand.”
“I began to see that the short texts I was writing were poster material.”
“THE FOND OLD COUPLE WASDISAPPEARING TOGETHER THROUGHSUCCESSIVE AMPUTATIONS.”
“When you start liking pain things start to get interesting.”
“I seldom have my stuff up unless I'm testing it. If I'm worrying about a painting, I put it up and see if I detest it quickly or slowly. Otherwise I have things by other artists.”
“The epiphany for me was that I wasn't a writer, and I had to do something with these texts. I put them in the streets as posters.”
“One of the glories and terrors of working in public is that you do see if your output means anything to anyone.”
“Sloppy thinking gets worse over time.”
“I wanted to be an abstract painter, but I was rotten at it.”
“I'm always trying to bring unusual content to a different audience - a non-art-world audience.”
“I WALK IN / I SEE YOU / I WATCH YOU / I SCAN YOU / I WAIT FOR YOU / I TICKLE YOU / I TEASE YOU / I SEARCH YOU / I BREATHE YOU / I TALK / I SMILE / I TOUCH YOUR HAIR / YOU ARE THE ONE / YOU ARE THE ONE WHO DID THIS TO ME / YOU ARE MY OWN / I SHOW YOU / I FEEL YOU / I ASK YOU / I DON’T ASK / I DON’T WAIT / I WON’T ASK YOU / I CAN’T TELL YOU / I LIE / I AM CRYING HARD / THERE WAS BLOOD / NO ONE TOLD ME / NO ONE KNEW / MY MOTHER KNOWS / I FORGET YOUR NAME / I DON’T THINK / I BURY MY HEAD / I BURY YOUR HEAD / I BURY YOU / MY FEVER / MY SKIN / I CANNOT BREATHE / I CANNOT EAT / I CANNOT WALK / I AM LOSING TIME / I AM LOSING TIME / I AM LOSING GROUND / I CANNOT STAND IT / I CRY / I CRY OUT / I BITE / I BITE YOUR LIP / I BREATHE YOUR BREATH / I PULSE / I PRAY / I PRAY ALOUD / I SMELL YOU ON MY SKIN / I SAY THE WORD / I SAY YOUR NAME / I COVER YOU / I SHELTER YOU / I RUN FROM YOU / I SLEEP BESIDE YOU / I SMELL YOU ON MY CLOTHES / I KEEP YOUR CLOTHES”
“If you behaved nicely, the communists wouldn't exist.”
“When my daughter was young, she thought all electronic signs were mine.”
“It's fun wandering around other people's minds.”
“Expiring for love is beautiful but stupid.”
“I wanted to support things that are helpful to people and maybe bash what I think is dangerous. So I switched from being everybody to being myself.”
“I am not free because I can be exploded anytime.”
“One thing that changed when I moved upstate was that I became interested in different materials. I started making the stone benches because I was seeing rocks.”