BOOK: Vitamin Txt-Phaidon Publications

In 1912, when Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque glued newspaper clippings onto their cubist still-lifes they unwittingly ushered in a new era of wordplay into the history of modern art. The written word was abstracted from the structure of language and introduced as a graphic, artistic element. From the fragmented “word salads” of the Dadaists to the speech balloons of mid-century Pop art, artists have frequently used language, often ironic or enigmatic, to enhance the resonance of their work. In his screenprint “Sin” (1970), Ed Ruscha transforms the word into a mountainous object that looms over a trompe l’oeil rendering of an olive. According to Ruscha, “words are pattern-like, and in their horizontality they answer my investigation into landscape. They’re almost not words—they are objects that become words”. Younger generations of artists have continued to use the inherent readability of words to communicate ideas to viewers across a diverse array of mediums, including painting, sculpture, installation, and video. Nominated by 66 leading global experts (including curators, critics, museum directors, and professors), the book “Vitamin Txt” by Phaidon Publications, showcases 103 living artists, from 34 countries, who place the use of text centrally within their artistic practices. With more the 500 artworks illustrated, and an introduction about the history of artists using text from ancient Chinese calligraphy to contemporary digital art, the book’s focus allows for a showcase of a range of different mediums, providing a cross-disciplinary view into the art world today. Artists featured include: Ghada Amer, Hellen Ascoli, Kamyar Bineshtarigh, Sophie Calle, Alejandro Cesarco, Heman Chong, Tony Cokes, Tracey Emin, Jeffrey Gibson, Shilpa Gupta, Jenny Holzer, Roni Horn, Ichihara Hiroko, Christine Sun Kim, Barbara Kruger, Glenn Ligon, Harland Miller, Shirin Neshat, Adam  Pendleton, Shubigi Rao, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Kay Rosen, Ed Ruscha, David Shrigley, Studio for Propositional Cinema, Hank Willis Thomas, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Nora Turato, Kaylene Whiskey, John Wood and Paul Harrison, Xu Bing, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries.-Dimitris Lempesis