Ex Libris is a Latin phrase, meaning literally, "from the books". It is often used to indicate ownership of a book, as in "from the books of..." or
from the library of... - Wikipedia
Jenny Holzer is an American artist that is most popular for using text in a variety of ways. She has incorporated the art of the message into a wide variety of substrates - paper, marble, LED message readers, and simply projecting text on the exteriors of buildings.
Generally speaking I can say that I really like her stuff. Any artist that uses text and words is going to attract my attention, and to use it in traditional as well as non-traditional ways shows me that the artist is
really serious about the words, the letters, and the message. Changing the method of delivery is simply the artist's experimentation in reaching a wider base of viewers by using a wider variety of materials.
My favorite approach may be the simple marble benches with carved text in them. Maybe because it is such a traditional material. Maybe because it reminds me of history. Perhaps because of the similarity to tombstones. I'm not exactly sure if it is one specific thing that draws me to these pieces.
While I am really pulled into the large projections on the sides of buildings, I have not been privileged enough to see one of these in person, I have only seem images in books or online. I know I am losing the "big wow" factor by not seeing them in their natural environment in their super-large scale. This reminds me of the story of the Corcoran canceling the 1989 Robert Mapplethorpe show due to political pressures. A demonstration to protest the cancellation of this show consisted of projecting slides of Mapplethorpe's work onto the exterior walls of the Corcoran (seen at right). Since this was in 1989 and Holzer was utilizing LED signs in the early and mid-eighties, I can only assume that her groundbreaking work was the impetus for the organizers of the protest against the Corcoran.
As far as color and movement, I will have to say that I prefer Holzer's interior gallery installations probably more than some of her exterior works. It is all about the color and the flashing, scrolling messages - and they are just mesmerizing. Those blues and greens and purples and reds and oranges all buzzing and reflecting on the white gallery walls. Love it. Again, I can only imagine what these would look like in person, but those cool colors combined with hot electricity - just the thought of it gives me goose bumps and makes my hair stand on end. After watching some the clips that I can find on YouTube, I realize that it would not be possible for me to walk through a gallery filled with these pieces because bright lights are a migraine trigger for me. Something that is fascinating about the gallery installations is the illusion that although the hardware ends at the plane of the wall, the viewer has the impression that the message continues to scroll right through the walls; that it continues on the other side. That's just weird.
Jenny Holzer has very successfully used electronic message centers as an art form. After selling these items as signs for many years, it makes me want to approach many of my sign clients and see if I can sell them on multiple installations of single-line units. That is another thing to point out - everything I saw Holzer using were single-line message centers. It would make them easier to arrange and sync, but it makes me wonder of someone is out there doing the same thing with multiple-line message centers, or even the super-large Jumbo-Trons, like the kind of thing you see in sporting arenas. What is really cool about those mega-units is the fact that when you are standing right next to them, you can't see an image or a word at all. It's very similar to the pixelated effect of the prints used on old billboard images. Those were printed at about 20 or 30 dpi - or "dots per inch" for those of you who are too young to know what that means. If you were holding even a square yard of one of those prints, you could not tell what it was. Standing right next to a jumbo-tron would be like being in the middle of a well-lit Christmas tree - it's all just bright flashing lights.
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